Altered Path: Recuperation
by Ace-Risk
Summary: Lotus Shan lived a happy life in his village in the mountains of northern China as a bamboo harvester. However, when his village is raided and he loses that which he loves, his life will be changed forever. Will he ever recover from his tragic past? Will he start a new life? Read to find out! Story Complete! Cover photo by: SabroTiger
1. Prologue

**A/N: This my second official fanfic, and it is mostly going to be a 'what if?' Story. It is completely unrelated to my first fanfic called "Dark-Bright". Instead, this story will tell the tale of a-...Oh who am I kidding, I'm probably just going to spoil the story...So just read to find out…**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer for this Chapter and all the rest: I do not own Kung Fu Panda**

Altered Path: Recuperation

Written by: Ace_Risk

Prologue

The Bamboo forests were peaceful, as the bamboo stalks moved lightly in the wind, their leaves blew along with the light breeze. It was late afternoon in China, this was confirmed by the position of the sun in the sky, and on a pathway through the forests, two individuals walked along the dirt path carrying bundles of bamboo wood in each each of their arms. "Well that was a productive day..." One individual stated. This individual had a broad and strong build, they wore a white traditional Chinese vest along with a pair of traditional Chinese black slacks. His name was Lotus Shan, and he was a male Giant Panda with jade green eyes and a surprisingly athletic build, alongside him was his best friend and life partner Hanzo. Hanzo was also a male Giant Panda and shared a similar build to lotus albeit with slightly more weight in his gut. Though for a Panda, Hanzo looked remarkably fit. As he the two walked along the dirt pathway, Hanzo replied to his friend "that's for sure, this will be more than enough bamboo wood for the rest of the week..." Lotus nodded at this statement by his friend and the two kept walking through the forest path towards their village, neither said a word until Lotus looked up at the pathway and he said "you know Hanzo...Someday I will leave this place..." Hanzo looked over at his best friend with a slight chuckle as he said "where will you go? This life is all we've ever known. You've learned the ways of Kung Fu and you have a life as a Bamboo harvester, what else is there in the world that you could ever want?" This was all true, Lotus had learned the principles and disciplines of Kung Fu from an old tortoise named Oogway who had visited his village when he was younger, and once Oogway had left the village he had continued his training on his own. But as he listened to his friend, he realized that Hanzo was right, what was there out in the world to offer him? "I don't know Hanzo, I guess you have a point. Besides where would I go without you?" Lotus said as he looked to his side at his friend with a smile. "Exactly Lotus, we're brothers remember?" Though Hanzo said this, Lotus and him weren't actually brothers, but they were such close friends that they sometimes they referred to each other as such. Lotus smiled and nodded as he said holding his free right hand out "to the end?" The two often said this to each other, and Hanzo nodded and replied "to the end." They then grabbed each other by the wrist. (kind of like Daniels and Zussman from COD WW2) This was their custom handshake which they only ever used with one another, and it always helped to strengthen their bond together. As they let go of one another, they headed back on the way to their village carrying the bundles of bamboo wood with them.

After nearly 10 minutes of traveling back towards the village, they had almost arrived. "I hope Li gives me some free time later, it's been a tiring day for me..." Hanzo said as they were now getting quite close to the village. Lotus chuckled as he said "you just want some time so that you flirt with Mei Mei again..." At this Hanzo blushed and he deflected "wha-What!? I don't know what your talking about..." Lotus laughed again and he replied "oh calm down Hanzo, I won't tell anyone else. Plus I'm sure my Dad will give you some time off." "Thanks Lotus, but can I just ask how you knew about me having a crush on Mei Mei?" Lotus still smiled but looked back at the path as he answered his friend's question "the way you look at her mostly, but also the fact that you once talked about her in your sleep..." "Okay Lotus I get it...Just stop..." Hanzo replied as his fave had turned a light shade of red. At this, Lotus chuckled as he knew that he had embarrassed his friend. But as the two Pandas were approaching their village, Lotus stopped and began to smell something in the air. "Do you smell that?" He asked his friend who stopped along with him. "Yeah...It smells like...Burning?" Hanzo replied as he too smelled what his friend was talking about. "It's coming from the village, but I don't remember anyone saying anything about a bonfire..." But just as Lotus said this, the two saw at least several smoke stacks rising up to the sky, which were quickly followed by another 6. But just then, the two heard a loud howling sound in the distance followed by many loud screams and shouts. "Oh no..." Lotus said as he dropped the bundles of bamboo he had in his left arm to the ground. He then tensed up and said to Hanzo still looking at the rapidly rising black smoke stacks "we have to get back to the village now...Right now..." Hanzo nodded and said "common!" Then the two dropped their bundles of bamboo wood and rushed over to their village where they heard all the commotion.

But when they arrived at the village gates to the Panda village, Lotus was horrified as he saw burning buildings along with a massive pack of armed Gray Wolves carrying torches and weapons. "No..." Lotus said as he watched the Wolves throwing the torches at the buildings setting them on fire. But just as he saw the horrifying scene unfold before him, he then noticed a wolf holding a screaming Panda Cub by the head with one hand, and then the wolf plunged a sword right through the Cub's neck. Lotus closed his eyes before this happened but knew that it had happened as the screams from the cub had been silenced. Then Po said to his life partner "Hanzo, I need you to search the village for survivors and bring them to the cover of the bamboo forest!" Hanzo nodded at this and went to leave but before he went he asked "and you?" Lotus had a face of determination as he said "I'm going to distract the Wolves while you search for survivors! Now go!" At this, the two Pandas split up and Hanzo went to the west side of the village while Lotus faced the wolves head on. Lotus then stormed toward the pack of canines and he angrily yelled at the wolves who were at the center of the village "COME HERE YOU COWARDS!" As he said this, he saw the heads of the wolves turn towards him and a one eyed Wolf said to his comrades "There's another one! Get him boys!" As the leader said this, the wolves charged Lotus, he counted about 15 of them. But as they approached him Lotus got into a defensive Kung Fu stance and he quickly disarmed 5 wolves and managed to hit their pressure points which knocked them out cold. The other wolves then stopped closely to him and each took more precaution as they had seen what he had just done. The one eyed wolf watched the whole scene and he shouted at his men "Finish him! Not a single Panda in this village lives!" Lotus growled after hearing this, now he unsheathed his claws and got into an offensive Kung Fu stance, and then in the blink of an eye he charged the nearest wolf and began to block attacks made by the wolves as well as knock them out one by one. Before he knew it, he had taken out all 15 wolves which only left the one eyed boss wolf. The boss now stepped back slightly in fear from the Panda who had just taken out all of his men, but Lotus rushed and caught him by the neck yelling into the one eyed wolf's face "WHY!?" At this the one eyed wolf clutched Lotus' strong arm trying to pry it off of his neck, but it was no use as the Panda was far to strong. But then the wolf began to laugh evilly as it said "your kind will die...Lord Shen will wipe all the Pandas off the face of the earth!" Lotus now looked beyond angry as he yelled again "WHAT!? WHO'S LORD SHEN!? TALK!" The one eyed wolf laughed again as it said "you will never defeat us Panda, you and your kind will die..." Lotus was now furious as the wolf was completely ignoring his question. So in his rage, he tightened his grip on the wolf and smashed him against the ground making him yelp in pain. But once the wolf recovered it mocked him as it said "you know we'll walk again..." By this, the wolf was referring to himself and his comrades. Lotus then released the Wolf's neck and got up, looking down upon the one eyed wolf, he said "you'll walk...WITH A LIMP!" And then Lotus stomped on the wolf's leg so hard that it cracked the wolfs shin and the bone stuck out of the flesh wound. The wolf screamed in pain but was suddenly silenced as Lotus punched him in the side of the head which knocked the canine out. But as he looked upon the motionless body of the one eyed wolf, he noticed that there was a symbol on the canine's shoulder guard, it was a red eye-lie picture with red curved lines representing eyelashes.

But having silenced his enemy, Lotus looked around at the burning buildings and noticed that the house of his parents was also on fire. "Mom...Dad..." He said to himself as he ran off to the house. Once he had arrived at the house, he saw no remains of anyone, not his mother nor his father, he then began to tear up and he knelt down saying to himself "no..." But before he could continue looking for his parents, he heard a yell of pain coming from outside the village, it was Hanzo. He then got off the ground and immediately rushed over to where he had heard his friend. As he ran through the charred remains of the village he began to feel something he had never felt before, fear. He was afraid that something had happened to his life partner. After he reached the spot where he had heard the sound come from, he was beside the bamboo forest at the edge of the village. "HANZO!?" Lotus yelled out as he looked around for his friend. But he heard no reply, he could only notice a bunch of arrows on the ground and a trail of blood. Hearing no reply, he followed the trail of blood which led deeper into the forest, this was not a good sign as he had earlier told Hanzo to lead any survivors he found into this very spot to hide. "HANZO!?" Lotus yelled again trying to get a reply from his friend. But again he heard no such reply, but before he could call again, he heard a faint sound "Lotus..." Lotus heard someone call to him quietly and he immediately recognized who it was, "Hanzo!?" He then heard the faint noise speack again "Lotus...Here..." Lotus then looked down and saw a clutter of bamboo stalks and leaves in a pile, but under the pile lay the body of a Panda. Lotus then removed the clutter of leaves and branches and noticed that his friend lay on the ground clutching his chest with his paws. "I'm okay Lotus...I'm okay..." Hanzo said almost like he sounded as if he was in pain. Lotus was relived to see his friend was alive, but when he went to moved his friend's paws off of his chest, he noticed that Hanzo had been clutching his chest for a reason. His chest had been pierced by an arrow which had punctured his lung and it was quickly filling up with blood. "No...Hanzo...No..." "There were -'Cough!'- No survivors Lotus..." Hanzo said as he looked into Lotus' eyes. "I'm -'Cough!'- Sorry Lotus..." But Lotus wasn't concerned about this, as he looked down upon his friend who was quickly dying he could feel nothing else but the deepest dread. Lotus grabbed Hanzo's wrist and was about to say something when he heard Hanzo say "Go Lotus, you always wanted to leave this place..." Lotus then began to tear up as he replied "not without you! You have to live!" But before he could do anything else, Hanzo took his other paw and placed it on Lotus' chest, "I'll always be with you Brother...To...The...End..." But as Hanzo said this, the life left in him began to fade and his hand slid down Lotus' chest leaving a bloodstained paw mark in the Panda's white vest. Lotus then replied "to the end..." As he clutched his friend's wrist. And as he said this, Hanzo had a small smile which quickly faded as his eyes closed and his head fell back. He was dead.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Lotus roared in pain as he had just lost his life partner and brother in front of him. And as he now cried looking down upon his dead friend, he heard a loud howl in the distance at the village, the Wolves had caught onto him and were now headed his way. He heard this, and so he quickly put Hanzo's paws over top of the Panda's chest, lying him down on the floor and allowing him to rest in peace… And then, he ran. Never looking back, Lotus just ran on all fours, away from his village, away from his family, and away from his deceased brother… With nothing but the feeling of dread and angst…

 **A/N: I plan to keep writing both this story and my other ongoing story, "Mischievous". However, the updates on each will be slightly slower as I will be working on two stories instead of just one. However I will still try to upload a chapter of either story at least once every 3 days, so stay tuned for the upcoming chapters! If you like this story and want me to continue it, follow, favorite and give me a review to let me know what your feelings on the story are.**

 **Thanks**

 **-Ace_Risk**


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Simpler Life

 **1 Year Later in a Forest Beside a Village in Southern China near the Himalayas**

The forest was quiet, the cold breeze gently blew through the leaves on the deciduous Ironwood Tress. It was very early in the morning in this part of China, 5:00 in the morning to be exact. However, even though many of the residents of the nearby village had not yet awoken from their slumber, one individual had woken up early and had arrived at a spot in the forest. This individual wore a traditional Chinese straw hat along with a tan beige Chinese robe with a pair of black slacks. At the moment they were attempting to peacefully meditate on the forest floor, and as they sat in the traditional lotus position for meditation, it would have seemed on the outside that they were at peace with their surroundings. However this was quite the opposite from what went on in the individual's mind, for in his mind he was having an awful flashback to his past, and was anything other than peaceful. As he heard the leaves in on the tree's branches rustling, it reminded him of the raging fires which claimed the wooden buildings, and the howling of the wind reminded him of the howls of the Wolves who had invaded his village. His mind was restless, and he remembered this moment in his life like it was just yesterday, as he heard the sound of the branches of the trees creaking in the wind he remembered the last part of the memory. 'I'll always be with you Brother...To...The..E-' The individual's eyes then snapped open before the memory had finished and then he got up from the ground and in the blink of an eye, he charged at a nearby tree. He then began to pound the Ironwood Tree with powerful punch after punch roaring loudly with each time he hit the tree and using his strong core to stabilize himself. Each time he hit the tree the sound of bark and plant fibers cracking and breaking echoed through the forest which reduced the woods to a less than peaceful place. As he hit the tree he began to tear up from his eyes as he had recounted every moment of the day when everything was taken from him, his home, his parents, his kind and most of all, his life partner. With each hit of the tree, his knuckles on his paws began to bleed and the tree became weaker. These were some of the strongest trees in the world and yet this one's fibers were no match for the enraged individual who pounded it over and over again. And as the individual's adrenaline rose, so did the frequency of his ludicrously powerful punches.

" **KAPOW!"**

" **CRACK!"**

After nearly a minute of pounding the tree with incredible force, the tree's fibers gave into the strain and the tree snapped right in half and fell to the ground making a loud 'THUMP!' sound as it landed. But the tree couldn't rest in peace so easily for the enraged individual simply went up to the fallen tree trunk, picked the heavy trunk up with both hands and then snapped the thing in two. He then grabbed the smaller of the two pieces and used great strength to throw the trunk nearly 20 feet in the air just nearly reaching the forest canopy. And as the trunk fell to the ground, he took a running start and jumped in the air, kicking the piece of wood with incredible strength at another tree. As the broken tree trunk flew towards the new tree, it hit with such great force that it cracked the new tree in half as well. As the individual dropped to the ground after the massive show of strength, their breathing rate had elevated and they now sweat profusely. And as they recovered their breath while on their paws and knees, the individual ferociously roared so loudly that the very branches on the trees above began to shake and small birds from the trees fled into the skies in fear.

He then fell back to the ground on his paws and knees to recover his breath again, and as he inhaled and exhaled, he began to calm down. As his adrenaline wore off and he began to calm down, the individual looked up into the sky which thanks to the 2 fallen trees was now open and visible from the forest floor. He noticed that the sky was filling out with more light and he also noticed that the temperature in the forest had risen slightly, though this could also have been a result of his body temperature rising due to the intense exercises he had just done. But nonetheless he figured that it was about time for him to return to his duties and so he went on his way back to the village the same way he had come.

 **Back in the Village in a Noodle Shop within the Shopping District**

"Good morning Ping." a low and strong voice said from behind a counter. "Oh Gods! Po you scared me again! How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me like that!" A middle aged Goose replied back to the voice as he recovered his breath from the shock. "Apologies, I thought you saw me come in from the door..." A large young male Giant Panda replied to the Goose shrugging his shoulders. The Goose then said "and what are you doing up so early anyway Po? You know that work doesn't start until 6 right?" At this the Panda nodded and he entered the shop where the Goose was heating up the cauldron in which he used to cook. The Panda then lied as he said "I woke up early so I decided to take a walk around the valley to get some fresh air..." He wasn't completely lying, he had indeed taken a walk, but this was hardly the reason for him to wake up as early as he did. It had rather been because he wanted to go out to train to keep atoning his skills. "I see, well since you're up already, how about you help me with the cauldron before all the customers come in?" Mr Ping said as he looked over to the Panda who still wore a straw had along with the same tan robe and black slacks. "Sure, just after I take a quick bath." He responded to the Goose. "Okay Po, just be quick, I have a feeling that it will be a busy day today." At this, he nodded and went to the back to wash himself after the intense exercise he had recently done.

As he went to the back of the building where the bath was, he removed his tan robe along with his straw hat. This revealed a very well built Giant Panda with jade green eyes, his name was Lotus Shan, although he no longer went by that name. If anyone had asked for his name over the last year, Lotus would tell them that his name was Po, he had mostly decided to change his name to protect his identity. Being a Panda, he didn't know who to trust in the world, but he had also changed it because he wished to distance himself from his past. In fact, the whole reason he had come here to the Valley of Peace was to start a new life and put his past behind him. But if his training that morning had revealed anything, it was that he struggled to do just that. He had never forgotten about anything on that horrifying day and this haunted every day of his life for the last year. And though to anyone else it would seem as though it was the Wolves fault for everything, Lotus mostly blamed himself for not being able to save his kin. He felt that if he had arrived earlier to his village he could have done something to stop the complete massacre of his people, and he would never forgive himself for this. 'Hanzo...I wish you were here Brother...'

Once he finished washing up, Lotus redressed himself and headed back to the kitchen of the Noodle Shop to help out his boss Mr Ping. He had been working for the Goose for nearly a year now and he was incredibly grateful for the Goose to take him in. Not only did Mr Ping pay him for his work, but he also provided a place to live as well as teach him many important lessons on cooking and culinary arts. And though Lotus would always stay humble, Mr Ping had always noted that Po had a natural talent for cooking, in fact he had learned how to perfectly make every traditional Chinese meal in just a year. This had really impressed Mr Ping as he himself had taken years to perfect this skill, but though Po was an excellent cook, Mr Ping never revealed all of his secrets, for he had a dish that nobody knew the recipe for. Not even Po knew this recipe, which slightly annoyed the Panda as he believed that Ping was hiding certain techniques from him. This recipe was called the Secret Ingredient Soup, and the name wasn't just for show, customers from all over the country would come to the valley just to have a bowl of this legendary dish. This made for an excellent reputation for the Noodle Shop as it was never without customers, and ever since Po had come and worked in the kitchen, there were even more customers than before. This was mostly due to the fact that they were able to adhere to more demands as Po turned out to be quite productive as a cook, though he would rarely leave the confine of the kitchen as he did not want to draw much attention to himself. Even though he had lived in the village for a year he still remained very secretive and whenever he would leave, he would always be sure to wear his straw hat and his robe. Many of the customers at the restaurant would seem skeptical of him and he would sometimes catch some of them peeking into the shop at him, but he didn't mind all that much. In fact he was now beginning to feel more comfortable going out into the public, and though it was a bit awkward with him being one of the largest species in the village, the other villagers mostly being pigs, sheep and rabbits never seemed scarred by his immense size. Of course, he would sometimes get stares from individuals who hadn't seen him before but he didn't really care.

Once he got into the kitchen Mr Ping said to him "Alright Po, could you help me with the cauldron? I'm going to go set the tables outside." Po nodded and did as he was told getting the soup ladle and stirring up the solution. The noddle soup they made consisted of a blend of various healthy vegetables along with certain spices and obviously noodles and water. And Po knew exactly the right ingredients to use as well as the right serving sizes, and though he had only worked in the shop for a yea, he was incredibly talented at making the orders quick and exactly correct. In fact for the last whole year, there hadn't been a single time he had messed up an order, and as a result, the noodle shop was a very lively place as villagers and merchants would frequently return to the shop for their meals. Today in particular was likely to have quite a few more customers than usual mostly due to the fact that the mid Autumn festival was today and many families would dine at the noodle shop on this day, for some families it would be a tradition to dine at Mr Ping's noodle shop, and for others it would be a first, but no matter the reason, the place would definitely be packed.

 **Meanwhile in a the Courtyard on Top of a High Mountain Peak**

The sound of a Chinese flute being played could be heard across the training grounds of the Jade Palace on top of Jade Mountain. This particular flute was being payed by a short Red Panda who wore a brown small Chinese robe and stayed seated in the lotus position. His name was Shifu and he was an accomplished Kung Fu Teacher at the nearby Jade Palace. Right now as he played his flute in a peaceful melody with his eyes closed, his ears perked up as he heard several sounds coming from behind him. But he continued playing his flute knowing exactly what the faint sounds were. And in the blink of an eye he sensed that he was being attacked from his side, so upon instinct, he weaved and flipped around avoiding the simultaneous attacks of 5 of his students. After a continuous effort by the students to land a hit on their master, they all stopped surrounding the small Red Panda. Shifu then said to all of them "Well done students! If you were trying to disappoint me!" Each of the 5 students respectfully bowed to their master who then went on to criticize each one of them individually pointing his bamboo pole at each as he said "Tigress you need more ferocity! Monkey greater speed! Crane, height! Viper, subtlety! Mantis-" He was then interrupted by a voice that said "Master Shifu-" But Shifu interrupted the voice quickly pointing his bamboo pole at Zeng who was startled. "What?" Shifu said pointing his staff at the startled Goose. "It's-It's Master Oogway, he wants to see you!..." At this Shifu was surprised and so he said "Okay Zeng, I will see him right away...Students, I have an assignment for you all while I'm away. I would like each of you to venture down into the village today." At this Viper replied to the Red Panda "I'm sure this isn't just a break from training, right Master?" At this Shifu nodded and responded "right you are Viper, I would like you all to go down to the village and look around for any criminal activity, there will be many more people in the shopping district today due to the mid Autumn festival. This will make for more opportunities for the criminals to strike without being detected. I would recommend that you look in highly populated areas, those are the most likely places where a crime would occur." At this, all of the Students respectfully bowed to their Master as he left to go to see his Master.

 **2 Hours Later Around the Shopping District in the Valley of Peace**

As the Furious Five walked through town, they received many looks from the citizens. This was normal for them, as they were practically celebrities around here, and though they usually didn't mind the attention, but today they did. For they were rather trying to blend in with the crowd of villagers trying not to let any potential perpetrators see them. But nonetheless they continued to prowl around the busy streets of the village as their master had ordered them to do. That was until an insect blurted out "man all this searching has gotten me starved! Is anyone else hungry too?" Master Mantis said to his comrades. Master Crane then mocked him and replied "how can you be hungry Mantis? You've spent most of the time on Monkey's shoulder." At this, some of the other masters laughed and Mantis said in defense "hey! I can't help it if my metabolism is way faster than everyone else!" They still laughed at this and Crane replied "calm down Mantis I'm only teasing you." But then Monkey added "he's got a point guys, it's lunchtime and I'm getting hungry too." Then Viper said "okay, I guess we can stop somewhere for a bit to get a bite, does anyone know any good places to eat down here?" At this they all shrugged their shoulders and Mantis said "nah, I haven't been down here in a while but I'm sure theres somewhere around here that-" Just then Mantis could smell an excellent fragrance in the air. "wow speak of the devil! Whatever that is it smells delicious!" Mantis said as the Five kept walking through the district. They then followed the fragrance to a building with a circular door. "Mr Ping's Noodles" Crane read from the sign above the door. "Well, whatever it's called, that amazing smell is coming from there, so I'm going in!" Mantis exclaimed as he jumped off of Monkey's shoulder and headed on in. Monkey then followed suit and said "I'm with Mantis on this one, are you guys coming?" At this Viper and Crane both nodded and Viper said "alright we're coming too, Tigress, are you coming?" Tigress shrugged her shoulders coldly and she said "fine, but I'm not having anything. We have a job to do." And with that, the Masters went into the shop.

They all sat down at a table in the right corner and within a couple of seconds they were greeted by a middle aged Goose who cheerfully said "welcome to the Noodle Shop is there anything I can-Wait...You're the masters of the Jade Palace! To what do I owe this pleasure?" At this Viper spoke up and said "you must be the owner of the shop Mr Ping." At this Mr Ping bowed to the masters and he said "in the flesh! Is there anything I can do for the lot of you?" Then Mantis said "whatever is cooking in your kitchen smells delicious! What exactly is it?" Mr Ping then replied "why that's our signature dish of noodle soup!" And then Mantis spoke up again "well I'll definitely have a bowl of one of those! What about you guys?" He said as he looked toward his comrades. "I'll have one too!" Said Monkey. "Me too." Crane followed. "It certainly does smell delicious, I guess I'll have a bowl as well." Viper lastly said. And at this Mr Ping replied "alright, 4 bowls of noodle soup coming up!"

 **Back in the Kitchen of the Noodle Shop**

As Po worked on in the kitchen, the day go busier, and right now it was the peak of business hours as the customers crowded the dinning area constantly coming and going. Though this didn't slow Po down, he had to keep added ingredients to the cauldron with the influx of people, but he made this look easy as he was focused on doing his job. But his concentration was broken for a second as he noticed five figures walk into the shop which he had never seen before. First was a green Praying Mantis followed by a male Spider Monkey, a male Crane, a female Viper Snake and lastly a female South China Tiger. He had never seen these faces in the shop before and for that matter he hadn't ever seen them in town and wondered who they were. They all sat at a table in the right corner (Po's left) of the shop and Mr Ping attended to them almost immediately, though this wasn't what he was focused on. For Po had his eyes on the female Tiger who wore a red Chinese training vest with black trim and Lotus leaves patterns. And she noticed this, as she seemed to look over at him from their table, and at this Po immediately looked away trying to look like he was working and not paying her any attention. As he kept working, Mr Ping came into the shop and said "okay Po, 4 regular bowls of noodle soup." And just as the Goose said this, Po started on a new topic and asked "Ping, who are those people over in the corner? I've never seen them around here..." At this Mr Ping chuckled and said "Are you serious? You've never heard of the Furious Five!?" Po shook his head at this and Mr Ping's jaw dropped. "Wow...Really? I mean they're sort of celebrities here. You've never heard of the Jade Palace?" Po had heard about this place before, but it had been a long time ago. "I think so..." He replied to the goose as he now looked over to the 5 again. "Well, they actually live in the Jade Palace and study the ways of Kung Fu, in fact they've saved the village many times! They're absolutely adored by the residents of the Valley." Mr Ping answered to the Panda as Po now filled the 4 bowls with the soup not even looking at what he was doing but not making any mistakes. "Ping, do you mind if I take over waiting duty?" Po then said as he still looked over at the female Tiger who was no longer looking in his direction. Mr Ping's eyes seemed to light up and he said "do I!? Po I've wanted you to say that for months now! Of course I don't mind if you take over for waiting duty!" And then he said "the four bowls are for all of them except Master Tigress." Then Po took each of the bowls placing 2 on each of his arms and going over to serve the Masters of the Jade Palace.

 **Back with the Furious Five**

Once the Goose had left to go to the kitchen to place their orders, the Kung Fu Masters settled down and began to chat about various topics. At least 4 of them did, for Tigress was remaining quite silent right now as she was not focused on her teammates. She was too busy looking into the kitchen where she saw a single figure working, he was much too tall for the kitchen's ceiling and it was obvious that he had to duck down to be able to do anything. She knew it was a male because of his figure and size, but that was about as much as she could notice about him as he was wearing a straw hat that concealed many of his facial features. But just then, she noticed him look up and over at her and she immediately looked away as to not seem suspicious, but she had noticed in that second that he had very vibrant jade green eyes, they glowed from the fire that was heating the cauldron where he was working. But before she could look back at him, she heard someone call her name, "...Tigress?...Are you there?" She turned her head and saw that Monkey was speaking to her from the other side of the table. "What are you starring at anyway?" He said again as she now faced the rest of the five. "I was...It's nothing...What were you going to say Monkey?" Then Monkey shrugged his shoulders and said "I was just saying, are you sure you don't want anything? I mean if that stuff is as good as it sounds then you should surely try some!" "Thanks Monkey, but I assure you that I am fine." She stated coldly and then turned around again looking towards the kitchen once more. "Suit yourself then." Monkey replied. But Tigress didn't care, she was too curious on who that person working in the kitchen was, why was he concealing himself? And why was she so drawn to him? Her question was quickly cut short as she noticed the figure walk out of the kitchen carrying 4 bowls of noodle soup with 2 bowls on each arm.

As he walked over to their table, Tigress now noticed just how big he was, he had to have been at least 7 feet tall. (Pandas are very tall when standing on their hind legs) And his height wasn't the only large thing about him, for his physique was quite built too, the tan beige robe he wore disguised that fact slightly, but she could easily tell that he was well toned. But as he got closer to them, Tigress began to feel weirder by the second, she had no idea why but she felt warm for some reason. "4 bowls of noodle soup for the Masters of the Jade Palace?" She heard a strong and low voice say from her left. It was him, and now as she looked up at him standing next to their table, she again saw his jade green eyes, but she also noticed now that he had white fur covering his face but he also had several black fur patches surrounding his eyes. 'A Panda!? I've never seen one of those in the valley before, in fact I don't think I've ever seen one...' She thought to herself. But her thoughts were interrupted as her teammates all said in unison "that's us!" Po then let down the 4 bowls of soup in front of Viper, Crane, Monkey and Mantis. But when he noticed Mantis in the corner he asked "are you sure you can eat that whole bowl of soup?" At this Mantis got defensive and replied "hey! Are you calling me short big guy!?" And then Po chuckled at the insect's quick defensive attitude and he replied "not at all, I was just wondering if that's too much for you." And then Mantis responded "nah, I'm sure I can finish it, besides it smells so good!" and then Mantis took a sip of the soup from his spoon and immediately said "Wow! This is really good!" The other members also took spoonfuls of their bowls and also complimented the Panda. This made Po feel good about himself knowing that such high class figures in the valley liked his work, but this wasn't the only reason he had wanted to wait their table. He then asked them "So, is there anything else I can get for any of you?" At this he heard the female snake begin to politely say "no thank you dear, I think we're fi-" But just then, she was interrupted by the female Tiger who said "a tea would be nice." A smile grew on Po's face, he had secretly been hoping that she would say something, this had been the whole reason he had done this job, he wanted to hear what her voice sounded like. And before she could tell him which tea, he answered "Jasmine?" She seemed surprised by this and she stumbled across her words as she replied "I...How did...Yes, please." Po's smile grew even wider and he replied "one Jasmine tea coming right up." And then he left to go back to the kitchen. Meanwhile, Tigress sat at the table completely dumbfounded, she couldn't understand how he knew her favorite type of tea without even asking. Not only that, but she couldn't understand why she felt so different around him. But her thoughts were then interrupted by Mantis who said "Man! I wish my mouth was bigger! This stuff is so good!" And then she heard Monkey say "Tigress, you've got to try this!" She then looked away coldly and responded "No thanks Monkey."

A couple of minutes later, the Panda returned holding small plate with a white cup on it with steam rising from through the cover. He then presented it to her saying "one cup of Jasmine Tea for the kitten." Normally Tigress would absolutely hate it when anyone would come up with a nickname for her, but for some reason hearing the Panda say this did not annoy her. In fact, hearing this made her feel even warmer than before, but she couldn't understand why. Nonetheless, the Panda set the cup of tea down in front of her in a kind and gentle gesture. Tigress looked at the cup, there was a cap on the top of the cup which kept the heat in but also had a small hole to allow the steam to rise, and from here she took in the sent of Jasmine coming from the small hole. She then looked up at the Panda and said "thank you." At this, the Panda winked at her with a smile. For some reason, Tigress couldn't help but blush at this, she had never felt so weak before, and yet she didn't hate it. And with that the Panda left and went back to the kitchen of the restaurant. 'Damnit, I hope nobody noticed that...Why did I do that? I have never felt so weak before and yet...I didn't mind...' Tigress thought to herself as she watched the Panda leave. But she decided to ignore these thoughts and brought her attention back to the cup of tea which she had asked for, it smelled excellent, it was definitely Jasmine tea, but it smelled better than any tea she had ever had at the Palace. So she opened the cap of the cup and was surprised to see inside the cup, a beautiful Tiger Lily Flower bulb floating on the top of the tea. 'How did he know?' She thought as she took a sip of the tea, not only did it smell excellent, but it also tasted excellent. It was perhaps the best thing she had tasted in a while. She then thought to herself looking towards the Panda who was once again in the kitchen working 'who are you Panda?'

 **A/N: This chapter came out a bit later than I was hoping to release it, but to make up for that, I will release another chapter within the next 2 days. Thanks for everyone for being patient. If you like this story so far and want me to continue with it, follow, favorite it to stay informed on updates on future chapters. And most importantly leave a review and let me know your thoughts on the story!**

 **Peace out**

 **-Ace_Risk**


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

'Mystery Fighter'

 **Nearly 4 Hours Later**

It was late afternoon in the Noodle Shop and Po was still hard at work making enough supply for the customers. He now worked on cooking the soup in the cauldron while at the same time chewing on a twig of bamboo. Although they were beginning to quiet down now that the mid autumn festival was finishing up, families were beginning to return to their homes now which left the shop slightly less packed. This made the going a bit easier for Po as he did not need to make as much food to accommodate for the customers, he was glad about this because it gave him more time to think and reflect on what had happened earlier in the day. He multi tasked while doing his job and simultaneously thinking about the female Tiger who had come to the shop earlier. He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of how he had perfectly guessed her preferred type of tea on the first try. Her reaction also made him chuckle slightly, she seemed very surprised at how he knew, but if he was being honest, he hadn't completely guessed, in fact it was more of an educated guess. Because when he had arrived at their table to serve the other masters, he had smelled the fragrance of Jasmine. And personally he loved Jasmine as it's qualities give the effects of immunity and prosperity, it was also his preferred type of tea, although with how much he would work in the days he wouldn't get much time to have a nice cup of tea. But what he thought about the most about the female Tiger was her amber and gold eyes, he had never seen such beauty in anyone's eyes since his mother, and as he thought this he remembered how his mothers eyes looked. They were a shade of blue that resembled the sky on a beautiful day. But now as he thought about his mother he began to feel depressed, he felt like he had let her and his father down when the Wolves had come, if he had just-.

"Hey Po, could you help me out with something? I can't seem to reach the sign that you put up earlier for the 'free dumpling bowl with purchase'." Lotus heard the Goose say to him breaking him from his thoughts. "Yeah sure thing Mr Ping." Lotus respectfully replied. And then he went to go remove the sign from the wall as they would be closing the shop down soon. But when he got over to the wall at the entrance of the restaurant to remove the sign, he heard a bit of commotion happening outside of the shop.

When Lotus approached the door of the noodle shop, he could now hear what all the commotion was about and as he listened in he could hear many voices in the alleyway right beside the restaurant.

"Please! That's all I have!" He heard a voice pleading in a tone of desperation, it was a female voice and whoever it was sounded very fearful. But then he heard a couple of voices chuckling in a tempting and intimidating way, and then he heard a different voice say "oh really? Cause to me it looks like you have much more on you than just money..." Lotus didn't like where this was going so he quickly rushed out of the entrance of the restaurant and into the alleyway. And sure enough, when he looked into the alleyway he saw at least 5 large bulls surrounding a female Lynx. But she wasn't alone, she had in her arms a young cub (Probably not more than a year old. He then heard her plead again "please! I don't have anything else! Just don't harm my son!" And then he heard one of the larger bulls reply "really? Then what about that necklace?" He then noticed that the female Lynx was wearing a necklace which looked very valuable, it was composed of silver and a ruby in the center with a capsule. "No! This was given to me by my husband! Please don't-" But before she could finish, the large bull forcefully grabbed the necklace saying "Is it really? Well what are you going to do to stop us little kitten!?"

Hearing this, Po had had enough and he then began to walk forward towards the thieves clenching his fists as he shouted "that's enough!" Upon hearing the shout, all the 5 Bulls looked towards him as well as the female Lynx and her Cub. "Who are you supposed to be?" The leader of the Bulls spoke to him with a raised eyebrow. Lotus then had a stern expression as he replied "I'm the one who's going to stop all of you from robbing this nice lady." The leader of the Bulls then began to laugh along with his thugs as he said "You? I'm sorry bud but your going to need to learn Kung Fu or something to stop us!" At this, Lotus smiled from underneath his hat and kept chewing on the twig of bamboo, not allowing the thugs to see his face as he said "final warning, let her go now or this will get ugly." At this the leader Bull seemed much more irritated than before and he said "the only thing that is going to be ugly is your face when I pound it to pieces!" The Bull then yanked the necklace off of the female Lynx's head, she cried out "No! Give it back!"

Lotus then got serious and looked at the five bulls from underneath his straw hat, each one of them were armed with shivs and knives. Not wanting to dirty his nice clothes, he removed his robe and the vest he wore underneath it and placed them on the ground on the side of the alleyway. The thugs now looked a little more intimidated than before now noticing how strong and athletic their opponent looked. Lotus then got into a fighting stance raising his arms and stabilizing himself with his legs, but just as he did this he charged the thugs in the blink of an eye. The thugs noticed this and went to stab him from the front, but just as they braced themselves for the massive opponent, Lotus jumped just before he ran into them. He jumped at a wall to the left of him and used his foot to push off from the wall creating a lot of momentum and sending him flying towards the unprepared Bulls. Using his momentum, Lotus punched two of the thugs simultaneously in their heads making them flip and land on the ground on their backs, knocking the wind out of both of them. The other 3 thugs looked surprised at the move Lotus had done, and the leader said in an angry tone "why you..." But before he could finish, Lotus grabbed one of the fallen thugs and threw the Bull at the others making them run out of the way.

But as they dodged their thrown partner, the Bulls failed to notice that it was just a distraction and Lotus used this as an opportunity to slug the one of them over the head thus knocking the Bull out cold. The remaining two thugs being the leader and one of the followers now backed up from their opponent now fearing him as he had just taken out three of their comrades. "What...Who are you!?" The leader said disbelievingly as he watched the large opponent's combat prowess, having not expected the individual to really be a threat, this shocked him. Lotus smiled from underneath his hat as he said "I told you, I'm the one who's going to stop you from robbing that nice lady." He said as he pointed towards the female Lynx behind him cradling her child as they both watched the scene unfold. The Bull then looked angry once again at how the Panda was mocking him, and then he said "alright then so that's how it's going to be, well you won't be laughing so much when you find yourself getting stabbed!" Lotus just got into his fighting stance and he said "this is your last chance to give back what you stole and get out of this without getting hurt..." But at this, Lotus heard the Bull begin to laugh again presumably mocking him, so Lotus sighed to himself and said "very well then." And just as he said this, he launched himself forward towards the two remaining Bulls quickly. They tried to react by swinging their weapons towards the rushing Panda just as he got close, but both of their strikes missed which left them vulnerable. Lotus used this opportunity to grab both Bulls by their heads and slammed their skulls against each other, though he held back a bit as to not cause any serious brain damage.

Now with all the thugs defeated and lying on the ground unconscious, Lotus looked over and noticed that the female Lynx and her Cub had closed their eyes and the mother was holding her Cub in her arms in fear. "It's alright, you're safe now." Lotus said in a calm and sympathetic tone towards the two frightened felines. They both opened their eyes and saw the Panda bear with the straw hat extending his hand towards them with the female Lynx's silver necklace in the palm of his hand. Lotus noticed the fear filled expressions on their faces and so he once again spoke in a calming voice "I believe this belongs to you." The female Lynx looked up to him and she sheepishly replied "th-thank you..." As she said this, her Cub who had been cradled up against his mother removed himself and he said "thank you mister! You sure showed those bad guys who's boss!" At this, Lotus smiled and knelt down to get to eye level with the little Cub "thanks kid." Lotus then heard the Cub say "I'm Taiki by the way! What's your name?" Lotus didn't know how to respond to the Cub, 'should I tell him my real name?' He thought as he looked down upon the innocent Cub.

"Po, my name is Po. It's nice to meet you Taiki." Lotus said as he extended his hand towards the Cub. Taiki looked up at the large Panda bear with a smile and shook Lotus' hand. Sure Lotus' hand was almost twice his size, but that didn't really bother him as he was very fascinated at the Panda who had just taken out five armed criminals. Lotus then released the cub and spoke to the mother "I believe this belongs to you." As he handed the silver necklace over to the female Lynx she seemed in shock and she replied "thank you so much Po, you have not only recovered my necklace but you saved me and my son!" Lotus smiled upon hearing this and shrugged his shoulders replying "It was nothing, I just couldn't stand back there and watch." But as he said this, he noticed that the female Lynx had shifted her gaze and was looking at something behind him, she then had a face of worry as she shouted "LOOK OUT!"

Lotus turned around in an instant and saw the leader Bull who had somehow recovered and was now charging for them with his horns pointed directly at them. Lotus was about to dodge out of the way to avoid the charging Bull, however it was then that he realized that the female Lynx and her son were right behind him. If he avoided the charging Bull, the two felines would get seriously hurt or worse killed. So doing what he believed was right, he stood firm and caught the leader Bull's two horns with each of his hands, but the momentum of Bull was so great that it forced Lotus into a wall at the back of the alley. Pinned up against the wall with the two scarred felines just behind him, Lotus attempted to lift the strong Bull's head by the horns but just as he tried this he heard the female lynx screaming in fear behind him. No doubt terrified of the current situation, and as Lotus tried to lift the Bull out of the way, he then heard a sound like a knife being unsheathed and then…

"SPLAT!"

The Bull plunged his knife into Lotus' gut with his free arm making Lotus roar out loudly in pain. There was a great struggle as Lotus' new wound was rapidly tiring him, and just as things seemed to look as bad as they could get, Lotus began to hear the screams of the young Lynx Cub behind him. This fueled his adrenaline and the Panda managed to muster enough strength to throw the Bull to the side crashing him against a nearby wall. Now breathing quickly out of fatigue, Po clutched the wound to his abdominal and noticed that the blood flowing through the puncture wound was now staining his fur. Though he didn't care about this, all that mattered to him was the safety of the two felines behind him. Looking over at the Bull, he noticed that the leader was getting up slowly as the impact of hitting the wall had rendered his opponent weak. Once the leader got to his feet, he looked over to the injured Panda and said with a laugh "How does that feel tough guy!" Lotus wasn't upset by the Bull's rhetoric, but rather by the fact that the Bull had managed to land a hit on him. In fact, the knife was still embedded in his gut which was quickly weakening him, so he got up to take out the Bull once again and save the two felines behind him.

"Got more in you still? Well let's fix that shall we!?" The Bull said as they prepared to charge the Panda once again with his horns. He then got a running start and quickly built up momentum charging at the Panda with as much force as he could muster. Lotus' vision was now beginning to blur as he was losing blood quickly but he directed all of his focus on defeating his opponent, which he could now see was rushing him quickly. So he stood firm once again in front of the two Lynx's trying to shield them from harm, and then just as the Bull reached him, he sent the most powerful punch he could right through the gap between the Bull's horns. And this worked, for he just narrowly avoided each horn as his punch hit the Bull right in his forehead sending the leader flying back from the impact. A loud thump was heard as the leader Bull crashed into the wall and fell to the floor this time unconscious.

As Lotus looked upon his foe in the same position as he had made when he through the powerful punch towards the Bull, he fell towards the wall which was right next to in exhaustion. He had lost so much blood from being stabbed that it practically dripped to the floor from his gut as he leaned on the wall, he limped his way over to his vest and robe which still lay on the floor of the alley. Then he heard the voice of the female Lynx as she comforted her frightened cub, "you're bleeding! Are you alright!?" She called to him sounding worried sick. "Lotus didn't respond and just kept making his way over to his clothing, still limping and grasping the wall to avoid collapsing. And just before he got to where his clothes were, he grabbed the knife by it's handle and he began to pull it out of his gut. Pulling the knife out of his body almost felt worse than when it had been plunged into him, but he worked through the pain and managed to completely pull out the shiv making it fall to the floor along with a large amount of blood. The female Lynx then panicked and called to him again "you need to get that treated! Here, I'll help-" But before she could finish, Lotus looked back and said "No! There isn't time! Nobody can know I was here!"

At this, the female Lynx seemed puzzled, here she was trying to help the wounded bear after he had save her and her son twice, yet he was refusing her help. She couldn't understand his reasoning either, but before she could question him, he picked up the clothes he had left on the floor before the fight with his clean hand and then he limped out of the alleyway still clutching his wound with his dirty hand. Both the felines were utterly bewildered at what had just happened and the mother still held onto her child after the chaotic scene that had just unfolded. The mother was just about to take her child home and let the village guards know about the knocked out bandits, but just before she was able to leave, she heard footsteps approaching very quickly. And then both the felines saw 5 figures come into the alley, these were characters they recognized, it was the Furious Five. Her son then shouted with glee "wow! It's the Furious Five!" They then heard the voice of master Viper who asked "are you alright Madam? We heard a lot of commotio-" But just as she said this, Viper and the rest saw the unconscious bodies of five strong Bulls lying in different areas in the alleyway around the two Lynx'. They also saw a fresh trail of blood leading out of the alleyway and also on the wall with paw prints of blood on the wall. "What in the Gods happened here..." Master Crane quietly spoke with his beak open not being able to grasp what had happened. The female Lynx then responded "we're alright now, but I fear that if 'he' hadn't shown up when he did then we wouldn't have been..." Master Tigress then walked up closer with her arms crossed and curiously asked "you're saying that someone saved you? If so who was this person?" The female Lynx then remembered back to what that mysterious Panda had said to her just before he left 'Nobody can know I was here!'But as she drifted into thought, Taiki her son went to answer and he said "oh yeah! He was a really good fighter and he took out all of those bad guys easily!" Master Tigress was now more curious and she walked next to the two felines and bent down to get to eye level with the small Cub "Oh really? And could you tell me what this 'really good fighter' looked like? She said with a hint of jealousy. "Okay! Well, he was tall, and he wore a straw hat and he was-" But as Taiki was about to finish, his mother put her paw over his mouth to stop him from revealing what the Panda didn't want anyone else to know. She then finished for him and explained "what my son is trying to say is that the man who saved us was very mysterious, we could hardly get a good look at him while he fought off those ruthless crooks." Taiki looked up to her as if to say why did you do that, then he saw his mother wink at him giving him a sign.

Tigress was not happy with this description though, because it did not give enough information about what this so-called amazing fighter looked like. Although, there had been a person that she had seen that day who had roughly fitted the description, 'but...It couldn't be him...Could it?' Tigress thought to herself. "Tigress! These are definitely Temutai's men." She looked back and saw Master Monkey who was inspecting the unconscious foes. "And not just any petty thugs, these are his best mercenaries! The fighter who took on all these guys at once must have been really tough..." Monkey continued. Tigress felt a bit jealous as monkey said this and she responded "It doesn't matter, just tie them up and deliver them to the prison guards..." At this, Crane asked her "And what will you do?" Tigress replied to the avian with a focused expression "I'm going to go find our 'mystery fighter'."

Sorry for the really late update guys, I have been very busy lately and so as a reward for staying so patient, I will post a new chapter within the end of the week. Favorite, Follow &

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	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Suspicion

Tigress walked out of the alley with many thoughts going through her head, all of which concerned this new mysterious fighter who the female Lynx and her son claimed had single handedly defeated all four of the Bulls. And though she had to admit that it was quite an impressive feat that one person managed to defeat all four of the highly trained mercenaries, she could not help but feel jealous and envious as she remembered that Master Shifu had demanded that her and the Furious Five keep the village safe and they had failed to do so. If it hadn't been for this 'mystery fighter' the female Lynx and her Son could have been harmed, just thinking of this new fighter made her growl beneath her teeth as she thought about how there was new competition in the valley. But even though she simply wanted to stay angry at this individual and continue with her training, she knew that she had to find this individual. Who knew how dangerous he could be if left alone?

Even thought there was no concrete proof of who this person was, she had a very good idea of who it could be judging by the young Lynx who gave a somewhat detailed description about the fighter. But first she followed the trail of blood drops that led out of the alleyway and into the town square, and what surprised the striped feline most was how quiet and empty the town square was right now. 'Damnit! How is he so lucky!? There's usually dozens of citizens here, but for some reason there's nobody here!' She cursed in her thoughts as she followed the trail of blood drops through the town square which right now was as quiet as a ghost town with only a few citizens roaming the streets. And it wasn't like today was a quiet day, the mid autumn festival usually attracted massive crowds of both citizens and merchants. But there was still a trace of where he could have gone because the trail of blood continued, but as she followed the drops of blood Tigress thought to herself 'If it turns out to be who I think it is, he must be pretty tough to avoid passing out from all this blood loss...'

Just then the blood trail stopped at a round entrance to a familiar place, 'I knew it...' Tigress thought to herself as she looked up and saw a sign that read 'Noodle Shop' She then looked into the shop and saw that the noodle shop was completely empty just like the town square. Empty, except for the large male Panda she had seen earlier who was now in the middle of sweeping the floors of the shop with a corn broom. She then walked through the entrance and heard the voice of the Panda say "The Noodle Shop is closed right now. Come back tom-" He paused mid sentence as he looked over and observed who the person was who was entering the shop, as he noticed that it was the same female Tiger who he had seen earlier in the shop. He then remembered that her name was Master Tigress and that she was apparently some big shot Kung Fu Master from the valley. "Oh...You again...Master Tigress was it? What brings you here again?" Lotus greeted wondering why the stripped feline had returned to the noodle shop during off hours. Master Tigress kept coming closer to the Panda who still wore the same tan robe with the sleeves rolled up and the same black slacks, although she noticed that he was now limping slightly, something he hadn't been doing earlier. She then answered his question "There was an incident in an alleyway about 2 blocks down. A female Lynx and her Cub were just about to be mugged by a group of mercenaries, when a 'stranger' came to their rescue and defeated all five of the strong Bulls..."

Upon hearing the stripped feline describe the incident, Lotus began to feel uneasy as he knew that this 'stranger' she was referring to was him. He couldn't risk anyone else knowing of his skills and his heritage so he tried to play dumb and answered her "Oh really? Well thank goodness those two are alright. Has the stranger been identified?" He said all of this while maintaining a stern and focused expression to avoid suspicion. The female Tiger then replied to him "not yet, he fled the scene shortly after. But the female Lynx's Cub gave a short description of this fighter..." At this Lotus cringed to himself as he thought 'damnit! They better not have told anyone about me, I can't let anyone find out about me or my past...' He then let the stripped feline continue "The Cub detailed the fighter as being tall and that they wore a straw hat..." At this, the female Tiger looked Lotus right in the eye underneath his straw hat and Lotus again noticed her vibrant amber and gold eyes, something that he had noticed when he had met her earlier that day. But before he could respond to her statement, Lotus felt the pain in his gut where he had been stabbed earlier. Right when he had returned to the shop after having been wounded, Lotus had tried to wrap up the wound as quickly as he could to avoid getting caught. And he winced a bit letting out a deep grunt of pain, which didn't go unnoticed by Master Tigress who then raised a brow and asked "are you alright Panda? What's wrong?" To which the large bear replied "I'm perfectly fine. So why have you come back to the noodle shop, you don't suppose this 'mystery fighter' passed through here recently do you?" Tigress then grinned as she replied "actually Panda, that's exactly why I came here, you see, the fighter was injured during his fight with the bandits and he seemed to have left a trail of his blood on his way to escape from the scene..."

'Crap, she's on to me. This isn't good...' Lotus thought as he listened to the Tiger Master's recount of the incident. She continued again "And the trail of blood led right to the entrance of this noddle shop..." At this Lotus replied "well I assure you kitten, I have not seen anyone recently enter the shop that matches your description..." Upon hearing the large Panda's comment Tigress felt a warm tingle within her, she didn't know why this happened each time that he referred to her as a kitten. In fact this time she was a little bothered by her own behavior and she thought to herself 'stop it Tigress! You have a job to do!' But while there was the side of her that was demanding that she stay focused, there was another side of her that thought 'but his voice is so strong...And he is so big and not to mention...Pretty cute...' Tigress was now fed up with her own subconscious and she responded to the Panda's alibi "Well Panda, there just so happens to be a person here in this shop right now who matches the Cub's description perfectly..." As Master Tigress spoke to him, the wound in Lotus' gut began to hurt again and he winced slightly, trying to hide his struggle from the female stripped feline who could tell that something was bothering him. But through the pain, Lotus replied "Oh really?" Tigress now looked annoyed with the Panda's obvious attempts to hide the truth, but she also noticed how he kept wincing as if he was in some sort of pain, she had also seen him press his hand on an area on his gut several times as if he was trying to suppress this pain he was in. "Yes really, in fact he's standing right in front of me and is continuing to hide the truth for some reason..." She replied with a mischievous grin forming on her face. Lotus now got slightly more defensive and he stood firm and he replied while looking down at the female Tiger "that's a rather big accusation you're making kitten...Why don't you prove it?"

Tigress once again felt a warm feeling run through her spine upon hearing the Panda refer to her as a kitten. But nonetheless, she wasn't satisfied that he was playing hard to get, and she was beginning to get fed up, "okay Panda, you leave me with no choice..." And without warning Tigress took her right arm and hit the Panda across the left side of his face, even Lotus hadn't seen this coming and the force of the strike turned his head to the side. He then turned his head to face the female Tiger who had a smug look on her face with her arms crossed as if she were waiting for something. He then wiped his cheek with his paw and looked down at her with a dissatisfied look, then he heard her say "funny, usually a blow like that would knock my opponents out..." Lotus was not happy right now, he knew that she knew he was the person who had been involved in the incident in the alleyway. But he stayed silent, ignoring her question while still looking upon her with the same dissatisfied expression on his face. "So you still plan to play hard to get? You can't fool me Panda, I know you're the one from the alleyway!" She said as she prepared to strike him again trying to provoke him to fight back to prove that he was indeed the one in the alleyway. So she yet again launched another punch at the Panda, this time aiming at his chest, normally when Tigress would hit her opponent this hard they would be sent to a healer, but when her punch hit the Panda's chest nothing happened. Lotus remained in the same position and did not seem fazed by her strike which further angered Tigress who was in complete disbelief 'how can he be this strong!? I've never fought anyone who can shrug off any of my attacks!' She thought to herself as she prepared to hit him again, but then an idea came up in her head, she had noticed earlier that the Panda had frequently tried to ease some sort of discomfort in his abdominal region, so she sent another punch flying towards his gut. But this time, the Panda did not take the punch and instead caught Tigress' paw in his effectively blocking what would have likely hurt him in the wound which had not yet healed. Tigress did not expect this and she looked up to the Panda with an angry expression as she said "let go of me!" But Lotus' grip on her paw didn't loosen, rather he tightened his grip and responded with a stern expression "No...You don't want to do this..." Tigress was now angered at the Panda's persistence and she growled getting ready to punch the Panda with her other free paw. Quickly reacting, Lotus caught Tigress' other paw which she had shot towards his face, "now look kitten, I don't want any trouble, I just recently got this new life away from violence." Tigress was now almost furious as both of her paws were held tightly by the Panda. "Then why did you help those two Lynx' in the alleyway!?" She almost shouted at him trying to get out of his grip, but no matter how much she struggled she could not break free.

Lotus thought to himself at that moment to why he saved those two helpless Lynx' in the alleyway, "because it was the right thing to do..." He answered while loosening his grip on her paws a little, and with this gesture, she yanked her paws out of his grasp quickly to which he made no effort to stop. Tigress had now calmed down a bit albeit thanks to the Panda releasing her but also because of the sudden calmness emitted by the Panda himself as he looked off as if he was distracted in thought, and he was. For Lotus was thinking about what he had told the female Tiger a few moments ago, about how he desired a new life away from the horrors of his past, this was exactly why he wanted a peaceful life working in a noodle shop making many citizens happy. But interrupting him from his thoughts was Tigress who asked "Panda...Where did you learn the disciplines of martial arts? No ordinary Panda could take on all five of those bandits at once and come out alive..." But this wasn't what Lotus wanted to hear, it was yet another question of his past which he did not want to reveal, "that's none of your business now is it kitten?" He said sounding aggravated. 'There he goes again calling me that! Why does he keep doing that!?' Tigress thought trying to shove off the dirty thoughts in her head whilst getting into a defensive stance due to the Panda's agitation. But Lotus didn't make any move, rather he spoke again in a louder tone of voice "look Master Tigress, whatever your interest in my skills is, I don't want any part of it. I'm never going back to that life again...Now if you'll excuse me I have a job to do." He then picked up the broom he had before and turned his back to the female Tiger going back to his job of cleaning up the restaurant before the end of the day. Tigress though was not going to let the Panda off so easily and she called to him "you must be a true coward if you fear your past so much as to leave it behind!"

'Coward...Coward...Coward...' Lotus thought to himself dropping the broom from his hand and clenching his fists. "Take it back..." Lotus replied with a now intimidating tone with his back still turned to Master Tigress. But she wasn't so easily intimidated by the Panda's behavior and she continued trying to further provoke the Panda. At this point she knew for sure that the Panda was definitely the fighter she had been looking for, heck he even admitted to it reluctantly, but now she wanted to see for herself just how good of a fighter he was. So to provoke him even more she continued "no, if you deny and try to escape your past then you're nothing but a coward!"

Lotus now turned his head with his back still turned to Tigress, his temper rising quickly because of the female Tiger's harsh words towards him. "What would you know about cowardice!? You have no idea what I've been through! Now get out before-" "Before what Panda?" She interrupted him. It was at this moment that Lotus removed his straw hat and set it down on a table while also setting the broom he held aside. He then turned around which revealed to Tigress a white furred face with black fur patches around the Panda's jade green eyes which were dilated (probably because of the Panda's state of anger) as well as his posture rising gaining him about 4 more inches. Tigress had never been truly intimidated by any of her opponents, of course she had been trained to resist such weaknesses, and she wasn't at the slightest intimidated by him, rather she was secretly admiring his eyes. 'God his eyes could seriously cut glass...Ugghh snap out of it Tigress!' She thought to herself as she got into her signature defensive stance preparing herself. Lotus then quickly rushed Master Tigress, she saw this coming and used one of her signature moves, the double palm strike, but the attack did not hit. Instead, Lotus quickly ducked under the attack, he then used the opportunity and grabbed each of Tigress' arms, lifting her up and then he pinned her to the wall of the restaurant making a loud 'Thump!' sound.

Effectively restrained, Tigress struggled to once again get out of the Panda's hold on her, but to no avail, for Lotus was just too strong. "This is the last time I'll tell you kitten, leave, I want no part in a life of violence. You have no idea what I've been through..." He said as he released her. As she dropped to the floor, many thoughts resonated inside Tigress' head, 'how is he so strong? He just defeated me with one move! What gives him his power!?' And on the other side of head… 'But he's so handsome...And powerful...And his eyes...Damnit! Get a hold on yourself Tigress!' She then looked him in the eyes and replied "okay Panda...Since you helped those two Lynx' I'll let you go..." Upon hearing her response Lotus' mood lightened up and he responded by nodding with a smile and placing his straw hat back on his head. "Thank you kitten..." He replied as he turned his back to her again and went on to continue cleaning the dinning area.

'Kitten...Why is it that every time he calls me that my heart begins to beat faster!? And how was it that he was able to defeat me so easily!? Where does he come from? Who is he? What is he so afraid of?' These were just a few thoughts within Tigress' head as she now walked out of the noodle shop leaving behind the Panda who she was terribly curious about. And she had every right to be, here she was having discovered that the Panda was indeed the fighter who had helped the two Lynx' but he would not reveal anything else about his past, where he came from, who taught him martial arts, why he did not want to use his skills in public and also how he was so strong. The only thing he had really revealed was that there was some sort of trauma that happened in his past, some sort of 'violence' as he would call it, but this didn't give any insight into any of the questions Tigress had. "I'm going to find out sooner or later Panda, just watch." Tigress quietly whispered to herself as she made her way back to the Jade Palace.

 **A/N: Sorry the updates have been so slow lately, with school starting again and my job finishing up I haven't had much time, but bear with me, I will try to upload a new chapter every week from now on, hopefully 2 a week.**

 **Peace**

 **-Ace_Risk**


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Dragon Warrior?

 **The Next Morning in the Noodle Shop**

Lotus once again woke up early in the morning, the sun had not yet risen and it was still quite dark out. However he didn't care, in fact it was more habitual for him to wake up early as he had gotten used to constantly being on his toes and aware. Being a Panda, he didn't know who he could trust in this world, what with his entire species having supposedly been eradicated. Of course he trusted certain individuals such as his boss Mr Ping, however only to a certain degree as he couldn't afford to entrust his background and past to anyone so to not jeopardize his secrecy. Another one of the reasons for him being awake much earlier than everyone else were his night terrors that he would frequently experience. They almost always reminded him of a past event in his life which would always bring him to the end of the nightmare where he would always see his family and brother going up in flames and disintegrating in front of him. Just another way to remind him of his traumatic past, it was as if the universe wanted him to forever remember how he lost everything.

At the moment he strolled through the perimeter of the village in the valley of peace, the temperature was mildly cold but it had no effect on him. He was rarely fazed by the weather, his thick fur coat made sure of that, but even so, he still his large tan beige Chinese robe with a black belt. While he walked along a dirt and gravel path on the edge of the village, he chewed on a small stem of bamboo while simply admiring the cold breeze that blew many leaves through the air. It was now well into autumn and the leaves of the trees were beginning to fall along with the weather becoming colder by the day, winter was coming soon, and many of the residents in the valley of peace were already making preparations for the change of seasons. As he passed by many entrances to the village, he could see the remaining decorations that were left up from the mid autumn festival such as Chinese sun lanterns, trade tents for the merchants and some signs that were posted on many of the walls of the buildings. While he took in the fresh morning air, his thoughts trailed to the event that unfolded the day before where he saved the female Lynx and her Cub in the alleyway. 'That Female Tiger was right...Why did I save them? I risked exposing myself to the public, and not to mention I got stabbed right through the gut...' He thought to himself as he continued walking on the path just outside of the village while also looking down at the area in which he had earlier been stabbed by the leader of the Bulls. He was deeply conflicted with himself right now, he had broken the one rule he had made for himself when he had run from his former village, to never reveal his identity to anyone who he didn't fully trust. And it wasn't just this that he was troubled by, for he also thought back to the female Tiger Master and when she had called him a 'coward'. 'I'm not a coward!' Lotus thought angrily to himself as he clenched his fists and let out a small growl beneath his breath. In his mind, Lotus despised the word coward, because in his opinion it was the furthest thing from what he was. Ever since he had learned the principles of Kung Fu Lotus had always been the protector of his village and he would never shy away from a fight.

But the more he thought about this the more he realized that he was much more cowardly than he once thought he was. He spent the last year and a half concealing himself and keeping a low profile, in other words, he was hiding. And from what? It wasn't like he couldn't defend himself, he had his training to thank for that. What he was really hiding from was his past life, he feared that if he became a warrior once again and devoted himself to the protection of others that history would repeat itself and he would once again loose everything he would grow to care about.

"Never again…"

Lotus whispered to himself as he continued on the path. He had been walking along the path for nearly two hours now and he started to see the faint bit of light which began to shine across the land. 'I had better get to the shop and get an early start...' He thought to himself as he turned around and made his way back to the village entrance.

As he entered the village everything seemed normal, the streets were relatively quiet as like most day with only merchants and children roaming the streets. However when he approached the entrance to the noodle shop he noticed that there was a large group of children gathering around a sign on the wall of the noodle shop. From pigs to goslings to rabbits he saw a wide variety of the youth of the valley, but why were they all gathered around that sign?

To answer his own question, Lotus approached the crowd of children he began to hear them gossiping and consulting with each other. Most of them sounded quite exited as if something great had happened, he heard one of them say, "I wonder who it will be? Master Mantis!?" He couldn't understand what the child meant by this, did he mean that Praying Mantis who had come to the shop the day before with the other Kung Fu masters? He then heard another child argue, "are you kidding!? It's obviously going to be the great Master Monkey!" 'Master Monkey, Master Mantis...Those must have been the names of those Kung Fu masters who came to the shop yesterday...' Lotus thought to himself as he now looked at the sign more closely, it was made from what looked to be gold but was most likely some sort of reflective surface. It read,

 _-Citizens of the Valley of Peace,_

 _The time has come for the legendary **Dragon Warrior** to be chosen by the Universe,_

 _Today at sun high, a tournament will be held to determine who is worthy of this legendary title._

 _Grandmaster Oogway, Jade Palace-_

"Master Oogway..." Lotus whispered to himself as his jaw stayed open from disbelief, it had been so long since Lotus had even heard of the name 'Oogway'. Oogway was the name of the wise Tortoise who had visited his village nearly 15 years ago, the one who had taught him the principles of Kung Fu. And as Lotus recalled the memory, he also remembered that the Tortoise had indeed mentioned something about a 'Jade Palace'. And just the day before, Lotus had learned that the masters of Kung Fu called the Furious Five supposedly resided there, though he never knew that his former teacher was actually the Grandmaster of this Monastery. But even so, he had never heard any mention of this 'legendary Dragon Warrior' before.

He then heard one of the children almost shout as they said "no way! If anything it'll be Master Tigress! After all she defeated Boar and she's the most hardcore Master in all of China!" Lotus reflected on what the child said, 'Master Tigress...So this will be a Kung Fu tournament of sorts...' He thought to himself as he now turned around and went back to the entrance of the Noodle Shop. He wasn't interested in a martial arts tournament, he felt if he participated or took any part in it, he would expose himself to much for his comfort level.

"Good morning Ping." He stated as he walked in through the small gate to the kitchen, his boss Mr Ping was also up and looked as though he were packing something. "Oh, good morning Po. Did you hear the big news?" Po replied "if by 'the news', you mean the announcement of the Dragon Warrior inauguration, then yes, I have heard." Mr Ping then replied, but not what Lotus was expecting, "what? No no no, Po, we've been requested to cook at the Jade Palace while the tournament occurs by Master Oogway himself!" The old Goose said with much enthusiasm while holding up a parchment or scroll which looked similar to the posters which Lotus had seen earlier nailed onto the walls of some of the buildings which read,

 _-Dear Mr Ping,_

 _It has come to my attention that your talent towards culinary practices is of great excellence,_

 _I would like to offer you an opportunity to come to the Jade Palace tomorrow at dawn to prepare meals for the spectators of the tournament._

 _Grandmaster Oogway, Jade Palace-_

But this excitement and enthusiasm which the Goose had was not shared with the large Panda, a frown formed on Lotus' face. Mr Ping couldn't understand why Po was acting this way, in his eyes this was a huge honor to have been personally picked by Master Oogway to prepare meals at the Jade Palace for so many of the citizens of the valley of peace. It would also be great for publicity, anything to get his name and his business out there to new customers would be a great opportunity. "What's wrong Po? Isn't this good?" Ping asked with a raised eyebrow towards the distraught Panda. 'Those Kung Fu masters must have tipped Master Oogway about us...' he thought before he answered to Mr Ping "everything's fine Ping, I was just lost in thought is all..." And in truth he was, although his thoughts were rather the opposite of what he told the Goose, he was not liking the idea of going to the Jade Palace, much less now that he knew that he would be exposed to many of the residents of the valley. But the Goose replied all the same "Good! Now, I've already packed my special ladles, bowls, cutlery and pots for the day, can you help carry them up there?" Lotus simply nodded and picked up the large wicker box which the Goose had placed all the items into with one hand. At this Mr Ping's jaw dropped and he thought 'that box must weigh 80 pounds! How can Po carry it with one hand!?' "Coming Ping?" The Panda called back to the stunned old Goose as he had walked to the gate with the box balancing on his shoulder. Mr Ping shook his head to restrain himself and he replied "uh-yes Po, alright let's be on our way."

 **1 Hour Later at the Top of the 1000 Stairs to the Jade Palace**

Lotus had just reached the top of the expansive stone staircase while still carrying the heavy box of cooking utensils and dishes. The climb up was much longer than he had expected as he had never seen such a long ascent before, the staircase must have consisted of more than 1000 stairs and to make it even more difficult the stairs were quite high because of the large incline of the mountain which they were built on. Although, contrary to what one would think, Lotus hadn't been fatigued by the massive climb at all. His boss Mr Ping however had been fatigued, "...Po...How can...You not...Feel tired after...that..." the old Goose struggled to get out as he panted while trying to get back his breath. He had a slight advantage with the ability to fly, although it had been a long time since he had actually flown anywhere and also his older age contributed to his physical condition. Lotus just shrugged his shoulders at the Goose's question and he replied, "I guess I just felt up to it this morning..." Mr Ping just raised an eyebrow and he replied having almost gotten back his breath, "whatever, anyway we should set up before all the spectators arrive, let's go."

Shortly after reaching the top of the stairs, Lotus and Mr Ping were greeted by another male Goose with black feathers who wore a golden and black Chinese robe and a matching hat. "You must be Mr Ping! Master Oogway sends his greetings!" The black feathered Goose called to the two as he approached. Mr Ping replied in a strictly professional tone "that's me! I don't believe we've met before Mr..." "Zeng, I am master Oogway's personal messenger and servant of the Jade Palace, I am at your service." The younger Goose said as he bowed respectfully to the two. "It's a pleasure to meet you Zeng." Lotus spoke to the Goose while also bowing in respect, something that his former teacher Master Oogway had taught him many years ago. Zeng was surprised by the large Panda's grasp on formal Kung Fu etiquette and asked, "excuse me, but have we met before?" Lotus then replied respectfully, "I don't believe so, at least I wouldn't recall it." "Very well, the tournament arena is right this way through the gates, follow me."

Zeng led the two through the entry gates towards a large open area in the shape of a square with a circle design right in the middle. Lotus presumed that this would be the arena where the contestants of this tournament would participate, 'I'm glad I won't be in this thing, this is way to open for me...' Lotus thought to himself while still following the two Geese still holding the heavy box on his left shoulder. While he walked through the tournament arena, he noticed at the end of the space was a small set of stairs which led up to a higher point where stood two large golden statues of Chinese Dragons. Zeng then led the two to one of the two buildings on the sides of the arena, this building was quite large and the room inside where they would be setting up had all sorts of cooking ingredients, even more than they would need, from the lights of vegetables to freshly made rice noodles to a large cauldron of water. "I hope this will be sufficient for you both to work in, if you need anything just let any of the palace servants know and we will bring you what you need." Mr Ping kindly replied "thank you Zeng we should be fine for now." And with that Zeng bowed to the two and left towards the summit of the mountain where stood a massive green building with pillars composed of red and gold outer pillars with green roof tiles, Lotus assumed this was why it was referred to as the 'jade' palace.

"At least I'll be able properly stand in this place..." Lotus humored as he set down the large wicker box beside the cauldron. "Hey! It's not my fault that the ceiling is to small for you! That Noodle Shop wasn't built for Pandas you know! It was built for Geese like myself, and also my Grandfather's friend who he won the shop from in a game of Mahjong..." Lotus couldn't help but smile at how his boss was so defensive about that small Noodle Shop, it was almost as if the Goose's life revolved around Noodles. "Alright now, we'd better fire up the cauldron and get everything prepared before all the people come." Mr Ping said as he began unpacking the wicker box with all the cooking utensils.

Unbeknownst to the two, they were being watched by two prying eyes from afar, however this individual only set their eyes on one of the two. Master Tigress who was perched on the rooftop of the opposite building's roof had watched the entire scene from the moment the two had entered the palace grounds. All the while she had a grin on her face as she thought to herself, 'you're not getting away that easily Panda, I know you won't be able to resist entering the tournament, and when you do I will defeat you and claim the Dragon Warrior title.' She along with the rest of the Furious Five had secretly requested to Master Oogway that he hire the Goose from the Noodle Shop, although their motives for this request were quite different. While the rest of the Five (mainly Mantis and Monkey) had personally admired the food they were served, Tigress merely wanted them to come because she wanted to get even with the Panda after he had easily defeated her that day. Thinking about how she was defeated by the Panda got her a bit upset and she began to growl through her teeth while clenching her fists. 'It was just luck...Yeah, if he shows his face in this tournament I will show everyone why I am destined to be the Dragon Warrior!' She thought as she imagined herself being personally appointed by Master Oogway, it was one of the things she aspired to the most in her life. But while one side of her head constantly drove her to be the greatest Kung Fu Master ever, there was another side of her head that said 'how can you think those things! He just wanted you leave him alone yesterday! Besides, he looks so strong carrying that heavy box with one arm...' At this thought Tigress began to purr and her tail began to swirl around in content, but once she realized she was doing this she whispered to herself, "cut it out Tigress! You have to stay focused! Plus, just because the Panda's strong and handsome doesn't mean you actually like him...Does it?' Her subconscious argued as it tried to lead her in several different directions. Never in her life had she felt so conflicted, it was as if she was unsure if she even knew right from wrong, and it almost always concerned this new Panda who she had just met the day before. However, she chose to ignore her thoughts and instead chose to go train for the upcoming tournament.

 **3 Hours Later at the Tournament Arena**

The sun was directly over top of the Valley of Peace, the rays of light bathed the Tournament Arena of Jade Mountain. Hundreds of villagers had all gathered for the special occasion being the Dragon Warrior Tournament, some being parents, children and even the merchants. However, many people from all across China had also received the news and had gathered for this once in a lifetime spectacle. In fact, many of the Kung Fu Masters from across the country had come to compete in the tournament to showcase their skills and to claim this legendary title. From neighboring villages, to monasteries in the Himalayas, there was no shortage of contestants. Lotus paid close attention to all of the contestants, almost all of them he had never seen before, sure he had heard tales of the adventures of the great Kung Fu Masters, but he had never actually met any of them. Master Oogway and the Furious Five were the only ones which he had personally met in his lifetime. The ones that really stood out when they were introduced were a female Asian Golden Cat named Mei Ling, a large Ox they referred to as 'Master Storming Ox', a strong looking Rhinoceros they called 'Master Thundering Rhino', and lastly a Crocodile with a spike ball on the tip of its tail named 'master Croc'. 'Why are they all named after their own species? Did their parents forget that there are lot's of other Rhinos, Ox's and Crocodiles in the world!?' Lotus thought to himself as he watched the continuation of the introductions, the contestants were being introduced by a small elderly Red Panda named Master Shifu, Lotus had learned that Shifu was apparently a student of Master Oogway and now he was responsible for the training of the Furious Five. Of course he had to ask his boss Mr Ping about it, to which the Goose told him the whole story that he knew. 'Shifu...It's almost as if he was meant to be a teacher...' (Lotus is thinking this because Shifu means 'teacher' in Chinese.)

While Lotus stood inside the large building, he could see the entire scene while he multi tasked, effectively cooking the noodle soup while watching the event unfold. His boss was in charge of relaying the orders to him, and there were many orders, 'I guess some people just need a good meal while watching a spectacle...' He thought to himself as he continued to do his work while still watching. But just then, he noticed something he hadn't before, to the right of all the other Masters was the female Tiger who he had met yesterday, she was starring directly at him with a stern face and her arms crossed. But even with her attempt to seem menacing to him, Lotus still felt a warm sensation as he stared into her amber eyes, 'no matter what you do, you will never scare me kitten...' He thought with a small chuckle.

Time passed, and the tournament went on, contestants were eliminated and all the while, the crowd kept up their enthusiasm cheering on their favored warriors to win. Lotus had watched nearly every match, studying the unique fighting techniques of all of the warriors, he was most impressed by the fighting style of the Praying Mantis 'Master Mantis' and Master Thundering Rhino. The insect was severely out weighed and very vertically challenged compared to almost all the other fighters, however somehow that insect managed to quickly incapacitate many of his opponents. However his biggest weakness that Lotus noticed was his tendency to get careless or reckless and also quite cocky. This was now the semifinal match and it was between Master Mantis and Master Thundering Rhino, the winner of this match would advance to the final and therefor it was much more anticipated than most of the other matches. Lotus already had a good idea of who would win, even though he admired the insect's skills, he predicted that the more experienced Master Rhino would claim victory and move on to the final of the tournament.

Lotus predicted correctly, for Master Rhino won a hard fought battle against Master Mantis which earned the large mammal a spot in the final match. However the tournament was not yet over, for there was another semifinal match to come before the final could take place, the contestants for this match were Master Viper and the fighter he had been watching the most; Master Tigress. Lotus was biased in this match and wanted Master Tigress to win, he personally thought she was the better fighter and he wouldn't even hide the fact that he had developed feelings towards her. From her beautiful amber eyes, to her fighting spirit to her amazing physique he found her attractive in many ways, the second he saw her in the Noodle Shop he knew how he felt. But now was not the time to focus on such things, at the moment the match was just about to begin and he thought to himself 'come on kitten, you can do this.' He found it quite humorous when he would refer to her by the nickname that he had made up, and every time he addressed her as such he would notice that the fur on her cheeks would get a bit redder than it already was. But he noticed that his mind was getting sidetracked and so he directed his attention back to the ensuing match.

After a long and tiring battle, the match ended with Master Tigress victorious after narrowly beating Master Viper, much to Lotus' relief. Now it was between the last two remaining contestants, Master Tigress, and Master Thundering Rhino. Lotus really didn't know who would claim this match, both warriors seemed to equally match one another. Lotus then looked up to his former Master Oogway, the old Tortoise had been watching the entire event from on the higher point where stood the two golden dragon statues, no doubt analyzing all the fighters for who was potentially worthy. But at this moment, Master Oogway seemed to look back in Lotus' direction, something the old Tortoise hadn't done before during the entirety of the tournament. The elderly Master seemed as though he were curious as he looked down upon the shaded figure, for Lotus still wore his straw hat concealing much of his face. And just as quick as he had glanced towards Lotus, his gaze shifted back to the arena and in a second, it was clear why.

"Citizens of the Valley! Now is the moment you've all been waiting for! The final match in the tournament to declare the Dragon Warrior! Our final match consists of two the last two remaining contestants! Master Rhino! And Master Tigress!"

Lotus heard the Red Panda speak again in a tone which could be heard by all the spectators on the outside of the arena. He had to admit, this tournament had really entertained the crowd, they were almost always cheering and giving a round of applause for the effort of the fighters, and right now they were cheering so loud that it was almost deafening.

The two fighters got into their positions looking very tense as this was potentially going to be one of the most important fights they were ever going to fight in their lives.

"Let the match begin!"

Lotus heard the Red Panda shout as he started the match. The match started off slow, with both warriors simply studying each other before making any drastic decisions, much to the crowds displeasure for they wanted much more action. However they wouldn't have to wait long as the warriors began to pick up the pace nearly two minutes in. They attempted to throw shots at one another however none were concise enough to land a solid hit, with either the opponent dodging, or simply blocking the attack. But after 3 minutes in, master Tigress began to start anticipating and reading the large Rhino's movements, her reaction time and her own attacks began to be much more accurate and she managed to land 3 solid hits on Master Rhino. However Master Rhino wasn't out for the count quite yet, his biggest strength was his durability and tough hide, but even with his tough hide, Master Rhino seemed to flinch or react to each time he was hit by the female stripped feline.

And after nearly 10 consecutive minutes of fighting, it was now obvious that the large Rhino was tiring, Master Tigress took advantage of this and she prepared to use one of the moves that she had perfected in her training. She then ran at the Rhinoceros at full speed on all fours and she narrowly dodged a hard jab, she then took this opportunity to use her double palm strike technique. As both of her fists collided with the Rhino's face, he was sent flying back after the impact and landing just outside the box forcing the spectators to move slightly out of the way to avoid getting hit. Tigress panted, she too was quite tired from her exertion of her energy, but she was now satisfied as she had technically beaten her last opponent of the tournament. She had finally accomplished her dream, to become the Dragon Warrior…

After Master Rhino had been knocked out of the arena, the crowd had effectively been silenced, they watched as Master Tigress knelt on the ground getting her breath back. And in a split second, they erupted in cheer! The clamor was so great that it was almost deafening, citizens threw their hats, parents lifted their children and the other Masters cheered for this amazing moment. Lotus however, remained calm albeit with a grin on his face, he had hoped that the female Tiger would prevail, and his wish had been granted. However, silencing the crowd once again was the voice of Master Shifu who shouted, "An incredible match! A valiant effort by both contestants! However this victory is claimed by Master Tigress!"

However, before she could be declared the Dragon Warrior, Tigress heard the voice of Master Oogway himself, "The tournament is not over yet my friends...For there is another who is worthy to be the Dragon Warrior, and they just so happen to be here right now amongst the crowd..." Master Shifu was stunned at his mentor's words and he privately whispered, "Master, there has to be a mistake, Tigress just won the tournament." But Oogway ignored the small mammal's concern and continued, "If there is anyone who wishes to challenge Master Tigress, I invite them to step forward..." At this moment, the crowd fell completely silent, not even the sound of the citizens breathing could be heard. But through all the silence, one voice spoke up, "I know someone who's worthy!" Then all of a sudden, the entire crowd looked in the direction of this new voice, it was the Taiki, the same Lynx cub that Lotus had met and saved the day before in the alleyway. "He's very strong and he fights like no one else in the world!" The Cub shouted in his innocent and youthful voice, the crowd still remained silent and simply watched the Cub. "And who is this 'worthy fighter' child?" Master Oogway said as he too now looked upon the Cub.

"His name...Is Po!"

At this moment, Lotus looked up from his straw hat and saw that many of the faces of the citizens began to stare his way. 'No...I'm not entering that tournament, I want nothing to do with this...' He thought to himself as he began to slowly back up from where he was standing. "And where is this 'Po'? I invite him to come forward..." The Tortoise said as he now looked towards Lotus who was now tipping his straw hat down so that no one could see even a trace of his face. But before he knew it Lotus began to feel like he was being pushed from behind, and he was, his boss Mr Ping and a couple of other citizens who he knew began to push him out of the building and into the arena. The crowd was still completely silenced, they all stared directly at Lotus or as they knew him 'Po'. 'No...This can't be, the tournament is over...I don't want this...' Lotus thought to himself as he was now smack in the middle of the arena.

"So, you are the one they call 'Po'?" Master Oogway said as the old Tortoise now looked down upon a figure who wore a tan beige robe with a black belt, black slacks and a straw hat. 'This is Master Oogway, I had better answer him...' Lotus thought to himself.

"Yes, Master Oogway." The Panda called as he pressed his fists against one another and bowed in respect. Master Oogway now had a smile on his face, 'I know this person from somewhere, but who exactly is he?' The old Tortoise thought. "very well, then I suppose there is one last match to prove who is the Dragon Warrior..."

 **Chapter 4 done! Gosh that one was long, thanks everyone for waiting! The next one will be out within the next week! Stay tuned! Favorite, Follow and**

 **Review!**

 **-Ace_Risk**


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Wars Not Make One Great"

"The very last match to determine who shall be chosen as Dragon Warrior shall commence." The old Tortoise exclaimed as he watched the new challenger. Upon hearing this, nearly all the Kung Fu Masters who had previously competed in the tournament looked over at the new challenger with obvious signs of jealousy. This included Shifu who stood beside his master feeling as though the tournament had been a complete waste of time since Oogway could simply choose whoever he wanted with a completely unwarranted decision. Lotus saw all the faces from the Kung Fu Masters from underneath his hat, and not only from the competitors, but also from people within the crowd. With crossed arms and angry looking facial expressions, Lotus knew he definitely wasn't popular with the spectators, but it wasn't like he had asked for Oogway to single him out, rather the opposite of that. "With all due respect Master Oogway, I must decline your invitation to participate in this tournament."

This statement from the Panda drew shocked expressions from nearly everyone in the setting, completely changing the mood. Here this stranger was, having just been given a chance to become the legendary Dragon Warrior, a highly reprized role in all of China, and he was turning down perhaps the greatest honor in the world. "What!?" A voice from the other side of the arena nearly shouted, bringing the attention of everyone else in the setting to its origin. It was Master Tigress, and she did not look content at the present moment, "how dare you!? You don't fully comprehend what it means to become the Dragon Warrior do you!?" She now shouted, almost definitely towards Lotus as she stared him down from the other side of the arena. Lotus now looked directly at the female Tiger and he addressed her, "look Master Tigress, I won't pretend to know what the role of the Dragon Warrior is, but I am not willing to play any part in this tournament." Not a single sound could be heard right now as the entire crowd could not believe what was coming out of the stranger's mouth, they all thought that it was common knowledge of what the Dragon Warrior was. "You coward! Master Oogway has chosen you to fight in this tournament! You cannot simply decline his request!" Master Tigress angrily argued with the Panda as she scrunched up her fists in irritation. "I CAN decline his request kitten, and I have no intention on fighting anyone." Lotus replied with a slight amount of irritation in his voice. However, Tigress wasn't finished and she snapped, "You are so naive! There is perhaps no greater honor in the world than being named Dragon Warrior! Yet you treat it like a joke!" " _War doesn't make someone great_ kitten, nor does a title, I do not desire either, and so I will NEVER fight you." Lotus responded now turning his back towards the female Tiger and starting to walk back into the crowd. Not a single sound could be heard within the entirety of the arena, not the Masters, not the citizens, not even Oogway nor Shifu even made the slightest sound. Just as Lotus was going to rejoin the crowd and give up the possibility of a fight, he heard a sound that resembled a scratching noise. And when he turned around he saw a very furious female Tiger heading straight for him while running on all fours. Acting swiftly, Lotus side stepped and rolled to safety allowing the Tiger's momentum to miss him. The entire crowd seemed surprised by the stranger's reflexes, they certainly weren't expecting him to have such good control over his body.

'Just couldn't leave me alone, could you kitten?' Lotus thought as he rolled out of the way. But before he could fully recover, Master Tigress lunged at him again, this time she held up her fists in an attempt to hit him as hard as she could. She came very close too, just narrowly missing what would have been a very painful interaction. Lotus still had no intention on fighting the Tiger Master, he not only had no will, but nothing to fight for. However, this didn't stop the striped feline from assaulting him, she simply would not let him leave the fighting arena and bring shame on her and the Jade Palace, she wanted to earn her right to be the Dragon Warrior. As she kept up her ferocious attacks on the Panda, Tigress began to get more frustrated by the second, not only was he consistently dodging her attacks, but it didn't look like it was tiring him. After attempting to hit the nimble Panda for almost several minutes without success, Tigress stopped to plan out a new strategy. Lotus noticed her sudden stop, but he didn't question it, 'no doubt she's thinking up a new strategy to hit me, I don't think she will come at me with the same predictable attacks this time...' He thought as he waited for her next move.

Meanwhile in the crowd, nearly every spectator in the crowd had witnessed the amazing spectacle, mouths lay open and many gasps were made at the stranger's inherent talent for defense. No one could understand how this stranger had managed to avoid every shot that the great Master Tigress had just attempted to hit him with. But one of the voices within the crowd began to cheer out loud saying, "That was totally AWESOME!" Lotus recognized the voice, it had been that of the little Lynx Cub he had saved one day prior. And shortly after the Cub's cheer, the crowd erupted with cheer and clamor to the point where it rivaled any noise made before during the tournament. It was so loud now that Lotus almost couldn't hear anything through all the cheers of the rowdy crowd. Lotus wasn't thrilled with this, he never really enjoyed being the center of attention, especially not now, and with this commotion it would be hard to hide himself for much longer. Master Tigress however, wasn't fazed by the crowd, and she began to notice how the Panda was letting his guard down, seeming confused about the crowd. But also...Nervous? She didn't question why, and instead she used it to her advantage and she rushed the Panda while he was looking around at the uproar from the crowd. And this time it worked, Tigress managed to land a hard punch directly on the side of the Panda's face, the momentum making him skid back a few feet in a kneeling position.

"That hurt..." Lotus said to the female Tiger with a very dissatisfied tone while rubbing his cheek in the area where the striped feline had hit him. "Rule number one, never take your eye off your opponent." Tigress said with a growing smirk on her face, obviously satisfied that she had managed to finally hit her opponent. Lotus then began to stare at the Tiger, without much reason other than enjoying the view. Even though she was attempting to fight him, his desires still could not deny the beauty of the female Tiger's form and hard willed personality. "Sure thing Kitten..." He said with a mischievous smirk on his face while not taking his eyes off the feline. To anyone else, Tigress most likely would have slit their throat or skin them alive for this obvious vulgar behavior, however for some reason she did neither. Instead, Tigress began to feel the same warm feeling or sensation that she had the day before in the Panda's presence, 'Gods damnit! Why does he keep doing that! And why do I keep feeling this way!? Pull yourself together Tigress! You have to defeat him and become Dragon Warrior!' She struggled to keep herself in order with the conflicting emotions within her head. However she eventually managed to overcome the thoughts and focused on her goal, "Alright then, are you ready to be defeated!?" She said in a threatening tone while she got back into an offensive stance. Lotus' expression changed from one of satisfaction to one of disinterest, "No Kitten, I still don't have any intention on fighting you, I've left that life behind...Forever." Tigress began to growl in frustration, no matter what she said or did, that blasted Panda would not fight, whether it was because he was a coward or that he had a legitimate reason to hide his talent for combat. "If you will not fight, then I will defeat you anyway!" She said as she began to rush him again, using her four paws to gain extra speed.

'I will not fight her, if I even reveal a piece of who I am to this entire valley, my whole life could be ruined, again.' Lotus thought as he braced himself for the incoming Tiger who was quickly charging at him. But to Tigress' surprise, this time the Panda didn't merely dodge to avoid her attack, but he repelled it. Sending an equal amount of force which countered the Tiger's jabs therefor nullifying her attacks. The entire crowd kept on the cheering, they seemed to adore the Panda's surprises which he kept unintentionally revealing. Lotus growled at this, he was now getting to a point of frustration where he wanted so badly for the crowd and everyone else to forget everything about him, he wanted to be left forgotten. He noticed that Master Tigress was once again coming at him with great velocity, but he was ready for her, he held his arms up in an x shape and blocked the incredibly powerful kick that she attempted to hit him with. The impact of the blow sent him skidding back several meters, but did not knock him down, 'how can he repel my attacks like that! No one can withstand a direct hit from my strongest attacks! Not even Shifu!' She growled in anger while now unsheathing her claws as a way of intimidation. The technique worked, but not on the intended target. For the crowd began to look visibly worried from the striped feline's sharp claws being exposed. Lotus however kept chewing on the small twig of bamboo he had been the whole time while remaining calm and waiting for the feline's next attack. He didn't have to wait long, for the impatient Tiger began to rush him again with even more ferocity than before, this time roaring aloud while making an attempt to pounce on him. He rolled to the side and out of the way of the female Tiger who struck the ground where he had been causing an indent in the stone floor of the arena to which the crowd gasped at. Lotus looked at the furious female Tiger and noticed that something about her had changed, instead of being the sophisticated and albeit competent Kung Fu Master, her eyes had dilated and her demeanor had changed, she now resembled a savage animal with murderous intent. He began to back up slightly with his fists still up in a defensive stance anticipating the feline to once again charge at him, but she did not, she simply walked up to him closely and began to circle around him while keeping her eyes locked on his. It was as though she was trying to read him through that straw hat he wore that concealed many of his emotions. So he began to do the same to her, both warriors slowly waling around one another while always maintaining eye contact. But this would only last for so long, for Tigress in an instant rushed the Panda who was ready for her, and miraculously, the large Panda pulled of a triple back handspring to avoid the Tiger's attack landing perfectly on the ground after the amazing stunt.

The crowd members weren't the only ones surprised by the stranger's incredible acrobatic skills, so was Tigress. Though she didn't show her astonishment as she was still frustrated and fed up with the Panda's persistence. She then chased him down again, this time jumping high in the air and attempting to land a powerful front flip kick aimed right at the Panda's head. The move was again unsuccessful as he managed to sidestep out of the way, however what the Panda was not expecting was the claw strike which Tigress launched towards him. He did manage to react to this, and the Tigers claws did not manage to scratch his skin, however they ripped a tear in Lotus' large tan beige robe. The robe then fell to the floor having been completely ruined from the Tiger's strike, this revealed something that made the crowd gasp out of shock. Underneath that large beige robe was the body of a very built animal with now visible black fur on his arms, but this wasn't what the crowd was surprised at, it was what he had been wearing underneath. For underneath that large robe, the stranger was wearing a traditional white Chinese vest, but this vest had the marking of a large paw print which skidded across the length of the vest along the stranger's chest. But this marking wasn't simply painted to sewn on, it was stained from blood, and from the looks of it, it wasn't recent, as the bloodstain wasn't fully crimson red and rather a burgundy color. Tigress also began looked surprised from this, 'is that his blood? He did indeed have a serious injury the day before...But the blood wouldn't look this old. And didn't he say he was leaving a life of violence in his past? Is he...A murderer..?' Tigress thought to herself as she witnessed the large Panda in his state of shock after having been exposed to the entire Valley of Peace.

Within Lotus' mind, the Panda was quite literally panicking, 'this is not good...What will they think when they see those bloodstains!? They'll probably think I'm a murderer. I can't risk exposing anything more, I've already revealed enough about my past. Ah screw it, I've had enough of hiding my identity and running from who I am...I am LOTUS SHAN!' Lotus thought to himself as he regained his courage. The Panda then almost shouted, "alright Kitten, this has gone on long enough. I will play your little 'game'." He said while putting emphasis on the 'game' part, effectively saying that this whole scenario was just a game. "You've just sealed your fate." She replied getting into a fighting stance and preparing to attack the Panda again.

She then ran after the Panda once again, with great ferocity and speed, however, this time the Panda didn't merely dodge or block her, he fought back. This is something she did not expect, nor did she prepare for. In a great display of strength, Lotus caught the feline's fists just as she was about land a double palm strike on him. He then delivered a hard kick right to the feline's midsection, which knocked her back a few feet and served to anger her even more. Enraged, Tigress shot herself back at the Panda and let out a barrage of precise attacks directed at his pressure points, but none hit. Lotus had been trained on the exploitation of pressure points and was well aware of what she was trying to do, he skillfully blocked each attack and managed to follow up with an uppercut directly to the Tiger's chin. It seemed as though Lotus had the advantage over the Tiger Master, having landed several concise hits on her without any signs of slowing down. However, just then, he began to hear the excitement and noise of the crowd again, they ranged from a variety of sounds, from cheers to some citizens even chanting. But it wasn't just this, Lotus began to hear someone in the crowd yell, "HE'S A MURDERER!" Lotus then began to circle around, as if he was panicking again, listening to the noise of the crowd around him, it wasn't just one person yelling this, it was many. 'If they only knew...' Lotus thought to himself as a he looked around at the massive crowd. Murderer was the furthest thing of what he was, but these people would never know that.

But while his back was turned to her, Master Tigress managed to gather some remaining strength and jumped up in the air attempting to land a powerful kick on the distracted Panda. Just as she neared him, Lotus remembered that Master Tigress was still fighting him, so he turned around only to be met by a powerful kick which he was not prepared for. He raised his hands in an attempt to block the attack, and it worked, only the momentum of the tiger caught him off guard and knocked him back making him roll backwards to recover. But Tigress did not give him a chance to recover, instead she pursued him and kept up the attacks, each of which he struggled to defend. And eventually, her strategy worked, she managed to hit the Panda directly in the side of his face with a powerful jab. The force of this hit knocked Lotus to the ground and knocked his straw hat off the top of his head. Lotus managed to kip up off the ground to recover, but it was then that he heard the atmosphere of the crowd change again. The sight of a Giant Panda shocked the citizens of the valley of peace along with all the other Kung Fu Masters, never had such an animal been seen in the valley, or in almost any other part of China. Lotus then began to hear voices in the crowd whisper things, things like, "A Panda!?" "He's a Panda!?" "I've never seen a Panda before..." "Where does he come from!?" "How is he so strong for a Panda!?" Almost everything Lotus heard had the word 'Panda'. It was almost as if something long gone had suddenly been rediscovered. But the most interesting reaction to the Panda's face reveal was that of the old Tortoise who had been watching the entire spectacle from a raised platform. Normally, Oogway always remained calm and composed, however, the sight of the Panda made his jaw drop as he could not believe his eyes. "It can't be...Lotus Shan..?" The Tortoise gasped as he saw the face of the former Panda prodigy, whom he had taught the principles and disciplines of Kung Fu to nearly 15 years ago.

Lotus looked around, the whole crowd was treating him as if he were some taboo, the skeptical expressions of the citizens proved that. Then he heard a voice shout, "Panda's are a sign of bad luck! They are an omen of death! Where a Panda goes, death follows!" Something then snapped in Lotus' head, he began to get much more defensive, his hair perked up, his eyes began to dilate, and most of all he began to growl loudly. Almost resembling a feral beast, Lotus growled angrily and began to clench his fists and claws so hard that blood began dripping down his hands from his claws puncturing his own skin and creating a surge of adrenaline. "WHO SAID THAT!?" Lotus yelled towards the crowd in anger and defensiveness, there were things that Lotus would tolerate, but the shaming or discrediting of his desist kin was not one of them. "Because it's not true!" The Panda once again yelled to the crowd, none of which admitted to spreading the false myth and fear mongering. "None of you know...None of you will ever know!" He shouted for a last time before he went back to face the Tiger Master who had not challenged him during his rant. "Alright Kitten, let's finish this so I may leave this place!" He said as he readied himself to fight the female Tiger for one last time.

All the while, Tigress had observed the way the Panda had reacted to the crowds myths about his species. 'He reacted defensively when they mentioned his species again. He acted this way yesterday too when I called him a coward. But why does he become so defensive for such frivolous things?' She thought as she also readied herself for combat with the Panda. She was preparing to charge at him again, but this time he was the one to make the first move. Lotus got a running start, then performed a double front flip and followed up with a strong kick at the end of the stunt, the unpredictability of the move had worked and he managed to hit the unprepared Tiger hard. This knocked her to the ground on her front, Lotus used this to his advantage and he performed a very advanced Kung Fu move, a nerve attack. Lotus quickly hit each one of the Tiger's pressure points in succession which in turn, completely immobilized the Tiger. The crowd stood and watched, completely stunned that the Panda had beaten the Tiger Master so easily, in just two moves he had rendered her completely incapable of fighting.

Though her control over her body had been cut, Tigress' brain still functioned, 'What!? How did he do that!? Why can't I move!?' She thought without being able to express her confusion outwardly. "I'm sorry Kitten..." Lotus quietly said as he knelt right next to the Tigers head while feeling guilty for using such a dishonorable technique on her. 'That bastard! He must have used a nerve attack on me! He is as dishonorable as Tai Lung!' She thought angrily. Lotus then stood up and looked at the immobile Tiger master with an expression of guilt, he didn't want to have to do this to her, but her stubbornness would have prevented him from being able to leave the arena. But before he could say anything more, a voice from elsewhere shouted, "It seems that we now have a new Dragon Warrior!"

It was Master Oogway.

 **A/N: Wow, what a sequence, I plan to publish another chapter for this story within the next week, so stay tuned! Also remember to Favorite, Follow &**

 **Review!**

 **-Ace_Risk**


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Delayed Departure

Lotus looked up at the Tortoise who was now descending down the stairs towards the arena where he stood. He then looked down at the female Tiger who he had immobilized and was still laying on the ground helpless. He frowned at the shameful way in which he had to end the fight, but he had really had enough of all of this. And even as Master Oogway approached him with his wooden walking stick, he felt like fleeing this arena at once, like leaving this whole valley!

As Master Oogway approached him, the old Tortoise said aloud, "Citizens of the Valley of Peace, it appears we now have our true Dragon Warrior!" Normally, the crowd would erupt in applause, but for now, everyone remained silent.

Lotus sighed to himself and he replied just as loud to the Tortoise while shaking his head in denial, "I appreciate your offer Master Oogway, but I must decline it. I have no such interest in pursuing this role."

And with that he began to head off toward the stairs leading down to the bottom of the valley, that was before he was stopped when he heard Master Oogway state, "That wasn't an offer, Dragon Warrior."

He looked over his shoulder and replied to the old Tortoise coldly, "It doesn't matter, nothing will change my mind… It's far too late for that…" And then, Lotus left, he trotted right up to the crowd of citizens which were standing in the way of the gateway. Though when Lotus approached, they all moved to the sides and allowed Lotus a way out without even been asked.

'They're probably scared of me… Who wouldn't be…' He thought as he looked to the animals who all stared at him as he walked out of the arena.

As he walked out, the entire arena remained silent, as if it were a void without sound, movement or time. Oogway frowned slightly, watching the Panda leaving what was supposed to be his destiny behind without the slightest regret. He looked down at the fallen Master Tigress and used his wooden staff to undo the nerve attack which had temporarily paralyzed her. Upon being cured, Tigress rose to her feet slowly, clearly not fully recovered from the attack yet.

Just then, his former student arrived from behind and asked, "Master, what do you intend to do about this!? Surely you cannot allow him to leave the valley!"

Oogway remained determined and answered optimistically, "I intend to change his mind."

Shifu looked surprised if anything, he had never known anyone who had disrespected the title of Dragon Warrior like that Panda had done, and he was puzzled at why his Master still wished to convince the Panda otherwise.

He tried to argue, "But Master! He clearly does not wish for the title! And look at him! He could be a murderer for all we know! You saw the bloodstains on his vest didn't you? There's no way he can be the-"

"I am well aware of that Shifu, however, destiny is destiny, and the universe has chosen its Dragon Warrior. There are no accidents. And I must be certain that he is the one." Oogway said, interrupting his former student while now setting off to follow the Panda who was descending the stairs towards the valley.

* * *

As Lotus descended down the last of the stairs, he thought to himself, 'Where am I going to go from here… They'll probably issue a bounty on my head since they think I'm a murderer… I'll be chased from this country…'

He made his way over to the noodle shop where all of his belongings were still in the spare room which his boss had given him. 'Ping… He'll probably never let me into his shop again… I have to get my things and leave before the imperial army arrives to capture me.' He thought miserably as he ducked under the round entrance to the noodle shop.

Once he arrived in the spare room which he had lived in for the last year, he packed all of his necessary belongings into a bamboo wood crate. He then took out a spare robe to wear since his other one had been torn during his fight with Master Tigress, as well as a new straw hat to help keep him disguised. After quickly packing, he slung the crate around his shoulder with an attached rope and proceeded to leave the shop.

He took a step out of the round entrance before he heard someone address him, "You cannot escape your destiny forever, **Lotus Shan**."

He looked directly behind him to see Master Oogway standing in the middle of the shop with his staff by his side. Lotus was a bit surprised, especially since he had just walked past that area, and hadn't heard anything when he went on his way out. Nonetheless, he replied, "My destiny doesn't lie here, it was never supposed to."

And then he left the Tortoise behind and began to go on his way, at least that was before Oogway appeared before him in the blink of an eye. 'How does he do that?' Lotus wondered to himself.

"You're wrong my friend, more than you realize. You were always destined to become the Dragon Warrior, though I did not see it until now." Oogway said determined to convince the unwilling Panda.

"No, I left that life behind when…" Lotus said before pausing for a second, though he continued a moment later, "When everything changed…" He finished while looking to the ground and reminiscing past events.

Oogway seemed disappointed with the Panda's reasoning, and didn't reply back, instead he allowed the Panda to speak his mind.

"The last time the fate of other's lives was in my hand, I let them down, and now my failure will forever torment me… I'm sorry Master Oogway, but I cannot do what you ask. I cannot protect anyone, I couldn't even protect my own people..." Lotus finished, walking past Oogway and leaving the shop behind him.

Oogway sighed and answered, "I understand what pains you little Lotus, however, I cannot force you to do this. Your destiny is yours to make, but I fear that not letting go of your pain will only make you suffer further."

Lotus looked back one more time and answered, "I'm sorry Master, but I can't forget what happened, if I did, it would dishonor my kin."

And with that, he left. Oogway stood in the same spot, simply watching the Panda leave his destiny. As he stood there, Oogway thought to himself, 'You must move on my friend, for only then can you find true peace and closure.'

Only a moment later, his former student accompanied by the furious five all arrived by Oogways side and watched on as the Panda left their sight down the pathway through the village.

"I suppose that he didn't comply? Master?" Shifu asked while watching the Panda leave as he had said he would.

Oogway didn't reply, and instead sighed and began to walk back to the Palace where he had come from.

Shifu looked as his Master left without saying a word, and he watched as the Furious Five were about to follow the old Tortoise, but he stopped them with his bamboo pole and shook his head, basically telling them to leave the wise Master to himself. They each looked back at him with confused expressions, but decided to adhere to their Master's wish.

Tigress then piped up, "Master, we can pursue the Panda and bring him back if we must-"

"No Tigress, leave the Panda, he clearly doesn't respect the title of Dragon Warrior, or Master Oogway for that matter. Just focus on your training, that goes for all of you." The Red Panda ordered, cutting his student off and then walking back to the palace himself, leaving all the five behind.

With the exception of Tigress, the four looked at each other with the same confused expressions and then shrugged.

But before any of them could say another word, a shout was heard coming down the streets of the village.

"Mister Po! Wait up!" Shouted a youthful voice. It was the young Lynx cub whom Lotus had met and saved in the alleyway the day prior.

The Cub ran through the streets to catch up with the Panda who was quite far ahead. He panted slightly from having run for so long, but kept up his pace. He then passed the Furious Five who moved out of his way.

"Hey! Isn't that the kid who we saw in the alleyway yesterday?" Asked Master Monkey who watched the kid run by.

"Yeah, but why is he chasing after that Panda?" Crane answered with a question.

"He's chasing after the Panda, he wants to say goodbye to the one who rescued him and his mother the day before…" Tigress answered coldly and mater-of-factually.

"You mean that it was that Panda who saved the kid yesterday in that alley? So that means that he isn't a murderer?" Monkey asked.

"Yes, but the bloodstains on his vest were far too old for it to have been from yesterday. And plus, why would he wear a bloodstained vest anyway?" Tigress answered, and then began to head back to the Palace herself.

Just then, the cub's mother came running down the streets as well but not nearly as fast as her son, "Taiki! Where are you!?" She shouted.

"Excuse me, but you all wouldn't have happened to see my son around would you?" She asked the four masters.

"Yes Madam, he ran that way after the Panda towards the village entrance." Viper answered on behalf of the team.

"Thank you so much!" She replied, and then ran off to find her son.

"What a weird day this has been…" Mantis remarked, to which his comrades each nodded in agreement.

* * *

Lotus was now reaching the entrance to the village of the Valley of Peace, outside this barrier was a pathway through a bamboo forest which lead north. But before he could fully leave from the valley, he was stopped in his tracks by several arms that wrapped around his right leg.

He looked down and saw the same Lynx cub who he had saved the day before. He was surprised to see the little feline hugging his leg and refusing to let him walk further.

"Please don't leave yet Mister Po!" The Cub begged, still holding on to the Panda's leg.

Lotus didn't want to hurt the young feline, so he respectfully asked, "Kid, can you please let go of me?"

But the Cub didn't let go, and instead kept on begging, "Please Mister Po! I just wanted to talk to you!"

Lotus sighed and gave in, "Okay kid, but make it quick, I have to go now."

The Cub then released him and said, "I just wanted to say goodbye Mister Po, I never got to speak to you much after you saved us yesterday. And so I'd just like to say, thank you."

Lotus couldn't help but smile a bit, and he replied, "Your welcome kid, take care of yourself. Speaking of which, where is your mother?"

As he said this, the two began to hear someone shouting from down the street, "Taiki! Taiki! Where are you!?"

Within a moment, the Cub's mother came running up to them, "Ah there you are Taiki, don't run off on me like that! You're going to get yourself into trouble one of these days!"

"I'm gonna go now…" Lotus skeptically said as he headed off.

"Wait! Where do you plan to go!?" The female Lynx asked him, making him stop for a moment.

"Away, I must go where no one can find me ever again. Its safer that way, for everyone." He answered as he set off on his way again.

"Hold on! Why don't you travel with us to my house? It's just beyond the bamboo forest about 8 miles ahead, and hardly anyone ever comes by." She offered while picking her son up from the ground.

Lotus looked back at her and asked, "Really? You would let me live with you and your son? Outside the village?" He was thinking he would have to travel much farther to find a suitable location.

"Absolutely! It's the least I can do for your bravery in saving us the day before." She answered.

"But… You're not scared of me?" He asked, almost in surprise at how generous and understanding she was being.

"Of course not! You saved my son after all, and trying to save people is not something to be scared of, it should be praised!"

At this, Lotus looked down and began to growl slightly thinking about his past experiences. But noticing the reactions of the two, he stopped and apologized, "Sorry, I was just… Remembering…"

"So what do you say Mister Po!? Will you come live with us?" The Cub asked on behalf of his mother.

Lotus smirked and replied, "I suppose I could stay for a little while…"

"YAY! Thank you Mister Po!" The Cub shouted in victory and excitement, which made Lotus smile just a little.

* * *

Tigress sat on the roof of the student barracks while contemplating the eventful day. The bight had fallen over the country, but even so, she could see just fine due to her superb vision. Her eyes almost gave off a small glow from their iridescence. She was sitting on top of the student barracks building more because of habit, but also because she wanted the time alone to think, and not have any distractions. Her thoughts wavered from both the day before, and this passing day.

'He wasn't even trying to beat me, and yet I still barely landed any hits on him… He was just playing me the entire time!' She thought restlessly, wanting to break something in her anger.

She felt insignificant at the moment, and not because the Panda had easily beaten her, but rather because even though she had won the tournament before the Panda arrived, he knew all along that she wasn't meant to be the Dragon Warrior…

She also felt violated, she had trained her whole life to be the best, she had gone above and well beyond her normal training requirements to become Dragon Warrior. And now, some Panda arrives out of nowhere and is pronounced the Dragon Warrior without even seeming to care about the position. She almost felt violated in this way, like everything that she had worked so hard on was all just a cruel joke and she was the person being played.

Her thoughts then went to the Panda who seemed to be the center of attention in the Valley of Peace over the last day. Everyone after the tournament couldn't help but talk about his mysterious nature, his remarkable combat prowess, and why he wore a bloodstained vest. Tigress could only guess the answers to some of these questions, and it irritated her even more that she knew so little about this mysterious Panda who called himself Po. Where had he come from? He said it himself that he had only recently turned to a life away from violence…

'But what violence does he mean? Surely Master Oogway would never appoint a murderer to be the Dragon Warrior?' She thought with a hint of irritation at being ignorant to the reasons of the Panda.

'And what about that vest that he wears? Why would someone wear a bloodstained vest? That blood is far too old to be from anything recent…'

All this thinking made Tigress want to punch something… Hard… So to satisfy her lust, she jumped off the roof and made her way to the Ironwood tree forest behind the Palace.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long to publish people, I'll be honest, I actually kind of forgot about this fic for a while since I was so busy with other things. But now I plan to finish up what I started! Next chapter will be coming soon! Stay tuned! Favorite, follow, and**

 **Review!**


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

An Enemy of Old

The next morning, Taiki woke up to a series of sounds coming from outside of his mother's house. He got up out of his small cot and went to go check out what made the noise. Upon stepping outside, he was rewarded with a refreshing atmosphere of the surrounding Bamboo forest, the sounds of the leaves lightly blowing in the wind, the faint noise of a nearby stream, and lastly the noise which had woken him up. He approached the back of the house where the sound came from, and it was then that he saw the Panda whom he had recently met sitting on a bench with his back turned.

Before he could even salute him, Taiki heard the Panda say, "Good morning kid, did you sleep well?"

Taiki smiled and replied, "I had a great sleep Mister Po! It's always nice coming back home to my own bed, don't you agree?"

To this, Lotus frowned and didn't reply which worried Taiki, "Uh, is everything okay Mister Po?" He asked now walking over to the side where he could see the Panda's face.

Lotus lied, "Yes, of course kid. Don't you worry about me."

Taiki looked at what the Panda was busy doing, he had multiple bamboo poles, each of which had been stripped of their leaves. "Uh, Mister Po? What are you doing?" Taiki asked as he sat down on another bench nearby.

"Preparing my breakfast of course." Lotus stated as he peeled the outer husk off of one of the Bamboo poles and began to chew on the end of it.

Taiki was flabbergasted at this, "You can eat Bamboo!?" He asked with interest.

As Lotus finished chewing, he nodded and asked, "Would you like to have a taste?"

Taiki nodded and took a small piece from the Panda. He was hesitant to take a bite, but when Lotus nodded to him, he took a small bite and began to chew. To his own surprise and to Lotus' as well, he didn't spit it out, and instead he said, "Wwow! Thrs rs amrzing!"

Lotus chuckled a bit at how the Cub spoke with his mouth full, but he understood what Taiki meant. "I wouldn't recommend eating too much of it though kid, this stuff is really hard to digest. You can take it from me."

Taiki nodded and quickly chowed down on the last bit of the portion the Panda had given him. Once he finished, he asked Lotus, "Mister Po, I wanted to ask you something. Is that alright with you?"

Lotus gave a small smile, "Sure kid, ask away." He replied a he wolfed down another stalk of Bamboo.

"I just wanted to ask, how did you get so good at fighting? I mean, you beat up those 5 evil bandits all at once, and you even defeated Master Tigress, and she's the leader of the Furious Five!" The Cub asked as he tried to imitate some of the fighting moves he had seen the Panda use.

Lotus looked into the distance and simply answered, "Well, I guess I had a good teacher."

"Really? I bet they taught you all sorts of awesome Kung Fu moves and techniques!" The Cub said excitedly as he continued to imitate Kung Fu moves he had seen before.

Lotus smiled weakly and continued to chew on the Bamboo, choosing not to reply to Taiki. But the cub continued, "Someday, I wish I could learn Kung Fu so that I can join the furious five and help to protect the Valley of Peace! It's been my goal ever since I watched the furious five defeat this bad guy called Boar! They totally beat him up before he could wreck the valley!"

'Boar? What an original name…' Lotus thought as he continued to chew the Bamboo. He never replied to Taiki's statements, but he couldn't deny that he found the Cub's enthusiastic attitude to be admirable. The kid almost reminded him of himself when he was younger.

"Hey Mister Po?" The Cub asked, breaking Lotus from his thoughts. "Yeah kid?" He replied.

"Why don't you want to be the Dragon Warrior?" Taiki asked, which made Lotus stop chewing the Bamboo to stare off in the distance for a moment.

"I..." Lotus trailed off, not knowing what to say in response. But after a good minute of thought, he answered, "Taiki, have you ever had a really important responsibility before?"

The Cub shook his head, "I don't think so, Muqin (Mother) always handles most of the important things."

Lotus then continued, "Well, okay, but could you imagine a really important responsibility in your life? Like going to school, or getting a job, or taking care of a family?"

"I think so, but what does this have to do with being the Dragon Warrior?" Taiki asked in response.

"Taiki, before I arrived at the Valley of Peace, I had a very important responsibility to my village, many responsibilities in fact. But my most important duty to the village was to keep our people safe. I was trusted by all my friends and family to uphold this responsibility. But I failed." Lotus answered, a grim frown forming on his face as he slumped his shoulders slightly.

"What do you mean Mister Po?"

"What I'm trying to say is, that I wish not to be the Dragon Warrior because I'm incapable of upholding the responsibility that comes with it, protecting the people."

Taiki looked at the mood change that had overtaken the Panda, and he walked up closer and sat down on the bench beside Lotus. "I don't think that Mister Po." He said, looking up to Lotus who seemed quite depressed.

Po's frown turned into a more neutral expression upon hearing this, "And why do you say that Taiki?" He asked, turning his head towards the child.

"Well, you're saying that you can't protect people, but what about the other day when you saved my mother and I in that alleyway?"

"That was different kid, I couldn't stand by and listen to those thugs harming innocents. I had to do something." Lotus answered quickly in his defense.

"I'm not sure it's very different Mister Po, in fact, I think you would make a great Dragon Warrior! You're way more worthy of the role than even the terrible Tai Lung!" Taiki countered as he stood up off the bench.

Lotus raised a brow, "Tai Lung? Who is that?" He asked, having never heard of that name before.

Taiki was surprised, "You've never heard of Tai Lung!? He's like the most evil villain the valley has ever seen!" He explained as he got closer to Lotus.

Lotus shook his head in response, while picking up another morsel of Bamboo and beginning to chew.

The Cub replied, "Wow, okay, well I guess I should tell you about him then. From what I've heard from my friends in the valley, Tai Lung was once a real prodigy in the ways of Kung Fu. He was trained from an early age in martial arts by Master Shifu and quickly became one of the best students that the Jade Palace has ever had! In fact, he was the first student to master the 1000 scrolls of Kung Fu!"

Lotus then asked, "If he was such a remarkable student, then why has he earned such a negative reputation?"

Taiki nodded, "I was getting to that part. So eventually once his training was complete, Tai Lung wanted to claim the Dragon Scroll, that's the scroll kept safe in the Jade Palace by Master Oogway. The Dragon Scroll is supposed to contain some kind of power which only the true Dragon Warrior can wield!"

Lotus didn't reply this time, instead he allowed Taiki to cotinue.

"But when he was denied the scroll, Tai Lung became enraged, and in his anger, he attacked the valley and caused a whole lot of damage. He then came after the scroll again but was stopped by Oogway for good, and ever since then he's been held in Chorh Gom Prison." The Cub finished as he sat back down on the bench.

Lotus finished eating all the Bamboo stalks which he had cut this morning and contemplated what the Cub had said about this 'Tai Lung'. He seemed like a true force to be reckoned with if it took Master Oogway to be able to stop him. He also thought about what the Cub had said prior to that, ' _Well, you're saying that you can't protect people, but what about the other day when you saved my mother and I in that alleyway?'_

He zoned out for a moment, so unaware of his surroundings that he failed to notice voice addressing him. He thought about the answer he had given the Cub in response, _'_ _That was different kid, I couldn't stand by and listen to those thugs harming innocents. I had to do something.'  
_  
'What if I were to accept this Dragon Warrior role?...' He asked himself in his mind. Truthfully, he didn't even know the answer to that question himself. He had all but refused it when Master Oogway had offered it, but realistically, Oogway had never truly been offering the role in the first place. Even so, that did not make Lotus more willing to accept it, the fact still remained that he was allowing his past to dictate his future. And Lotus wasn't going to easily forget the tragedy of his past.

Finally snapping him out of his thoughts was a voice from behind him, "Mister Po? Are you okay?"

He looked behind him and saw the Lynx's mother with her paw on his shoulder. She looked worried, and so did her son who was still sitting on the bench next to him.

"Yes. Yes, I'm okay." He replied as he shook his head to get back to reality, having not realized how deep in thought he was.

"Really? You seemed lost, is there something on your mind?" The female Lynx asked respectfully out of concern.

"Yes, but it's not that important." He answered briefly as he stood up and stretched his arms a bit. "Besides, I believe you were going to ask me something?"

"yes, I came out here to ask if you could do me a quick favor. You see, our house isn't in the greatest condition these days and I was wondering if you could possibly help me to fix it up? I'm sure a big male such as yourself wouldn't mind the work, would you?" She replied as she pointed to all the areas that needed maintenance. When Lotus nodded, she led him over to her countryside house and showed him the issues with it.

After a couple of hours of hard work, the house had been brought into much better shape than it was before. The job had certainly kept the Panda busy, and strangely enough, Lotus had actually enjoyed having a job to do. Not only did it help to keep his mind off of the recent events, but it was also a good exercise.

It was now near sunset, and the temperature had fallen as a result. As he was finishing up some last touches on nailing back a piece of siding, he heard a voice from at the door of the house shout, "Taiki! Dinner is ready!"

Lotus looked over and saw the Cub rushing to the door from where he was playing in the back yard of the house. Since the house was practically on it's own in the wilderness, there was a lot of space for Taiki to be able to enjoy himself outdoors. Lotus smiled a bit watching the Cub with a happy expression on his face as he returned to the front door where his mother was waiting.

"Would you like some too Mister Po?" She asked him as her and Taiki still waited at the door. He smiled and replied, "I suppose I could use a nice meal, I am a Panda after all." With that, he headed on inside to the newly renovated house. Inside, there was a freshly cooked meal consisting of rice bowls, tofu, and steamed vegetables. After the hard day of work, Lotus had built up quite an appetite, so it was going to be a nice break for his weary body.

While the three ate at the small dinner table, Taiki's mother started a conversation, "So Mister Po, I'd just like to thank you again for saving the lives of my son and I. I don't know what we would have done had you not shown up when you did."

Lotus nodded and replied, "Of course. I couldn't stand by and listen as those crooks were trying to take advantage of you."

"It was very noble of you, and for that we will forever be grateful." She answered with a smile. Lotus returned the gesture, but didn't know how to respond, and instead went back to eating his meal. This created an awkward atmosphere at the table, lasting for several minutes before Taiki's mother asked a question, "Mister Po, I'd just like to ask you about something, it may be a little personal so I understand if you refuse to answer it."

Lotus was hesitant, but nodded which prompted the female Lynx to continue, "During your fight with Master Tigress, when your robe was torn off, it revealed a white vest that you wore beneath it. Are those bloodstains that were spread across your vest?"

Lotus wanted to lie about this, it was a very uncomfortable topic for him which he had hoped would not come up. But he had lied and hidden the truth from others for long enough, so he nodded in response with a sad looking expression. "I would recount the tale right now if Taiki were not listening in, the story behind it is quite disturbing for a young child."

Taiki looked disappointed at this which Lotus immediately noticed. "Hey, cheer up kid. If it makes you feel better I can teach you a thing or two about Kung Fu. How does that sound?" He asked, as he placed a paw behind the Cub's back on the bamboo wood chair.

Taiki's eyes lit up and his expression shifted a full 180. "Really!? You'll teach me Kung Fu!?"

Lotus smiled, "Perhaps, that is if your mother is okay with it." He replied as he looked over to the female Lynx.

Taiki immediately started pestering his mother, "Please Muqin!? Can Mister Po teach me Kung Fu!?"

She looked over to the Panda with a happy expression and said, "Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt for Taiki to learn a thing or two. Sooner or later he'll need to know how to defend himself. After all we wont always have you there to save us."

Out of pure excitement, Taiki jumped out of his chair almost shaking the table by accident as he hopped up and down out of happiness. His overreaction brought smiles to both of the adults at the table. And from that point on dinner was much more lively with conversation, mostly Taiki boasting about all the things he wanted to learn about such as offensive and defensive techniques, meditation, and even some advanced techniques Lotus was surprised that the kid knew, such as the 3 finger nerve pinch, acupuncture pressure points and more.

Once dinner was finished, Lotus helped Taiki's mother to clean up the mess by washing and drying the dishes. It seemed after the long day that Taiki was quite tired now, his mother had insisted he head to bed, but because of his childish stubbornness, he argued with this.

But after much argument between he and his mother, Lotus stepped in, "Taiki, your mother is right. Besides, if you're going to train with me tomorrow then your body will need to rest up. I can't have you drifting off during our first lesson now can I?"

"I guess you're right Mister Po." The cub answered before yawning and rubbing his eyes. He then headed to his bedroom leaving Lotus and the female Lynx alone. With Taiki out of the room, Lotus walked out of the door to the darkening night sky, the sun was just setting with the last of its light showing on the horizon. He sat down on a bench next to a fire pit in the backyard with the female Lynx following him and taking a seat beside him, "Stay here, I'll return in a moment." He said as he stood up and went to go find firewood.

Five minutes later he returned carrying some chopped logs, some smaller sticks, and also some tall dried grass. He placed the logs at the base of the pit and then prepared the sticks in a tipi formation, he then rolled the tall grass into a type of ball. The female Lynx watched as Lotus took a long and narrow stick and began to twist it rapidly against another thin stick implying the hand drill fire starting technique. After several minutes, the stick at the bottom began to release smoke from the heat of the friction, Lotus then took the ball of dried grass and held it up against the smoking stick, allowing it to catch fire. He quickly took the now fiery ball and inserted it into the base of the fire and blew air at it. Within a moment, the flames began to engulf the small sticks now providing light to the darkened backyard of her house.

Now having lit the fire, Lotus inserted a couple more sticks and then sat down on the bench next to the female Lynx. "So, you were going to ask me about my vest earlier?" He asked as he watched the orange and crimson flames of the fire and listened to the crackling noises of the burning sticks.

"Yes, why do you wear that white vest underneath when it is covered in dried bloodstains? I'd also like to know where the stains came from." She answered with several questions as she looked at the Panda's distraught face.

He took a moment to think about what to say, he removed the robe which revealed the white vest covered in long since dried up burgundy bloodstains. "This was a Qipao Vest which was given to me by my mother when I turned 20. I used to never wear tops but this one was very sentimental to me." He answered as he looked down at it and continued, "I loved my mother, she was everything one could ask for in a parent, she was generous, loving, and I'm willing to bet she spent more time with me than any other with their son."

At this, Taiki's mother raised a brow with her arms folded. Lotus noticed this and shrugged his shoulders, "What? I'm allowed to be biased aren't I?" She smiled and shook her head still folding her arms.

Lotus then continued with his story, "The rest of the story involves Hanzo, he was my best friend, we even considered each other brothers…" Lotus paused for a moment and sighed, "Him and I worked together each day gathering stalks of bamboo for our village, we were after all the most physically fit of all the other Pandas. It was a simple life, one that Pandas were known for, but I longed for more, to move away from the village some day and explore what this country truly had to offer. And it happened, only it happened in the worst way possible..."

He took a long pause, sighing in despair as he slumped his shoulders and looked at the fire. Taiki's mother looked at him worriedly, "If this topic is too sensitive then I understand if you wish not to reminisce it." She said as she leaned in closer to him.

Lotus shook his head, "No, I need to get this out, I've hidden the truth from everyone else for far too long, and from myself as well."

"It happened about a year ago. It was a normal day, Hanzo and I were fulfilling our duties and returning home to our village, that was until we saw smoke rising from near our village. We got to the village as fast as we could, but we were too late." Lotus said as he stared blankly into the flaring sparks made by the fire.

"By the time we arrived, all we saw were burning buildings, and screams of agony and pain. The village had been attacked by some army of wolves, although why I do not know. I sent Hanzo to go search for survivors of the calamity while I distracted the wolves. I defeated many of them, but I couldn't stop them all, and pretty soon, I heard a sound that I feared the most, it was Hanzo. So I rushed to find him as quickly as I could, and I did. But again, I was too late, when I found him, he had been shot through the chest by and arrow. I wanted to save him so badly, but I was powerless to stop his fate. And in his last moments he placed his bloodied paw on my chest. He told me to run and to never look back, and so I did."

He stared into the fire with a stoic expression, it actually reminded him of that day, more likely it reminded him of the buildings which were engulfed in raging infernos. To his left, the female Lynx sat on the bench still not being able to comprehend the story the Panda had recounted, she had never heard of such a violent story before. At first, she didn't even want to believe the Panda, but the more she thought about it, he was most likely telling the truth. For around a year ago there had been a rumor that the entire population of Pandas had completely vanished from China, and since then the sight of a Panda would have been considered a bad omen. It all made sense now, the bloodstains, the Pandas secretive nature, and his hardened attitude.

She didn't know what to say, more to the point, she didn't know if she should say anything. After contemplating it for a moment, she asked, "So you wear that vest to honor your mother and your fallen friend Hanzo?" She asked with a bit of hesitance.

Lotus nodded and then stood up and added some more sticks onto the fire. Once done, he sat back down on the bench and said, "There hasn't been a day since the calamity that I haven't thought about either Hanzo, my Mother or my Father. No matter how much I try, I can't put it behind me. I was trusted by my entire village to keep everyone safe and I failed everyone…"

"I'm terribly sorry to hear that Mister Po-" The female Lynx responded before she was interrupted mid sentence by the Panda, "Lotus. My real name is Lotus Shan."

She was surprised that the Panda was confiding so much of his personal information with her, so much so that she wondered if he was really telling the truth about everything. Pushing that thought aside for a moment, she replied, "I'm glad we met Lotus, my name is Wēnhé. But I need to know, why do you hide things from the rest of the world, things like your true name and your past experiences?"

"I tell no one else because I am fearful." He answered simply still with the same neutral expression as before.

"Fearful? Fearful of what?" Wēnhé asked with a raised brow.

To this he replied, "I am fearful of trusting others. Of course I trust you and Taiki, I know you have no ill intentions of telling anyone else about my past. But I fear that others would spread rumors that a Panda still lives. That is why I wanted to leave the valley after my fight with Master Tigress. If I were to stay in the valley then my life and many others would be endangered by the tyrant who brought destruction on my village were he to return."

Wēnhé thought to herself for a second about his reasoning, 'That actually makes a lot of sense.'

"Do you have any idea who was responsible for the destruction of your home? Surely this person would have to have faced justice for committing genocide against an entire race?" She asked as she now looked into the fire as well.

He shook his head, "I do not know. The only thing I have to go by was what one of the Wolves of the army told me. He had one eye and had a strange looking symbol on his shoulder guard, I assumed he was some sort of commander or high ranking member of that army, and he only told me that his master he called 'Lord Shen' wanted to extinguish all Pandas off the face of the earth. But I have never heard of this 'Shen' person before."

Wēnhé place a paw on her chin, "Lord Shen… I can't shake the feeling that I've heard of that name before…"

Lotus was disappointed, seeing as how neither him nor Wēnhé knew exactly who this Lord Shen person was, all the Panda knew was that when he finally found out who they were, he would be able to avenge his kin.

 **A/N: Sorry again for the late update all, I am guilty of forgetting about this story from time to time as I have another ongoing fic along with this one. Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter, your feedback is greatly appreciated and helps me to better write this series! You can expect to see chapter 8 coming up around mid June as I have many responsibilities namely work, family, and also other projects. But I will do my best to stay on top of things. Anyway, what are your thoughts on this chapter? It seems Lotus is opening up much more about his past life, but will he ever be able to put it behind him and move on? Or will he continue to suffer?**

 **As always, if you enjoyed this chapter, favorite and follow the story so you can receive future updates on the upcoming chapters! Also, please review, I need to keep hearing what everyone's thoughts are on each chapter!**

 **-Ace_Risk**


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Jailbreak

High above the clouds in the peaks of the cold and windy Himalayan mountains in Mongolia was a desolate place so inhospitable that even the toughest animals found impossible to live in. It was here where the most dangerous criminal in all the country was kept in the most fortified maximum security detainment facility called Chorh Gom Prison. The entrance to the complex lay at the top of the Tavan Bogd mountains, and the only true way to even see it were the two outdoor lanterns shining with a red glow outside in the several massive doors. Though even with these lights, the prison would be damn near impossible to find, as these peaks were the constant source of blizzards and ice storms which clouded the skies. The air about the complex was quiet, which meant that things were just as they should have been… Or were they?

"POW!"

A massive explosion from the inside of the structure blew shards of wood from the doors in every direction. Following the pieces of the door were the bodies of an entire battalion of Rhino prison guards who were launched out onto the freezing rock plateau before the entrance. Along with the Rhinos, a singular male goose wearing an ochre colored robe also dropped to the ground, though he was much less battered from the explosion than the other guards who had suffered the brunt of it. He went to try and get up to fly away in fear, but was halted when his long neck was picked up by a large feline paw.

The frightened goose scrambled to get out of the hold on his neck, but submitted after he was brought face to face with the most dangerous criminal in the country, Tai Lung himself. He gulped as he watched the massive male Snow Leopard take a sigh of relief.

The Leopard smirked, "I'm glad Shiu sent you. I was beginning to think I'd been forgotten. Fly back there and tell them, the REAL Dragon Warrior is coming home."

The Goose who's name was Zeng did not need further encouragement, he nervously nodded his head in quick succession and was then thrown up into the air by the Snow Leopard who grinned as he watched the avian flap away as quickly as he could.

'So, Oogway has finally chosen a new Dragon Warrior after all this time… And apparently he is one of the most powerful Kung Fu Masters that has ever been witnessed? They clearly have never heard of me before. When I return to the valley I will not only defeat that phony Dragon Warrior, but I will also defeat any who stand in my way!' He thought to himself as he grinned with pride.

But it then occurred to him, he hadn't been awake when he had been transported to this prison, so he had no idea where the Valley of peace was from these mountains. He had seen the direction in which the goose had taken off, but for all he knew that could simply be a ploy to misdirect him. Seeing as some of the remaining Rhino guards were still conscious, he grabbed one of them by the collar of their shirt and brought the heavy mammal face to face with him.

"I'll ask you just this once. How do I get to the valley of peace from here?" The Leopard asked with an interrogative tone as he hoisted the Rhino up from the cold snowy ground.

The horned mammal seemed to be in a daze after having taken an explosion head on, and seemed in no shape to even talk. But the Snow Leopard had ways of making people talk even when they didn't want to. He took his free paw and slapped the Rhino across the face hard and effectively waking the horned mammal from his daze.

"How do I get to the Valley of Peace from here!? Talk!" The Leopard demanded as he looked the Rhino directly in the eyes.

The guard, looking quite scared still refused to answer the question. And it soon became apparent why. Because before Tai Lung could hit the guard over the face again, he heard the taunting voice of the prison Warren who he had bested in the greatest form of karma. "You'll never get us to talk, you angry kitty! We have been trained to resist your questions and interrogation! We will sooner die than answer to you!"

The Leopard looked back at the Warren while still holding up the guard with one arm. He was beginning to get impatient, and wanted to end the Warren's life for wasting his time, but then he thought of something.

He turned his head back to the guard in his grasp, "Perhaps I should kill you all where you stand. But instead I think I will subject you to a fate worse than death."

He then turned back to the Warren who had since lost any bravery he once had, "Tell me, have you ever wondered what it would feel like to never be able to move again? To never be able to feel anything for the rest of your life?" The Leopard asked menacingly as he approached while still grasping the guard.

The Warren didn't answer this but his expression told the Leopard everything, he didn't want such a fate. Tai Lung grinned, "So, if you wont tell me where the Valley of Peace is, then I will have no choice but to use this technique."

He then took his free paw and performed a three finger nerve pinch on the Warren which instantly froze the Rhino on the spot, not being able to move or make the slightest twitch of a muscle, all the Warren could do was breathe.

He then turned back to the guard in his paw again, and didn't even need to ask again before the Rhino began to tell him everything, "It's south west from here! We're in the Tavan Bogd Mountains in Mongolia. If you head south to Gogmen City there is a mountain pathway which leads west towards two rope bridges! Just please don't paralyze me!"

The Leopard grinned, "Was that so hard?" He asked as he dropped the Rhino to the cold ground with a 'Thud!'

And with that, he took off south towards the Valley of Peace. The place he had once called home.

* * *

"Master! I beg you to reconsider giving the scroll to that darned Panda! He is unworthy!" An elderly Red Panda pleaded to an even older Galapagos Tortoise as he followed the reptilian down a long hallway.

"I will not continue to argue with you Shifu. The universe has chosen its Dragon Warrior, and I cannot be mistaken that he is the one." The Tortoise replied as he trekked on to the end of the hallway where he opened several doors to reveal the mid afternoon sky.

The Red Panda sighed in defeat, for in the end it was Oogway that had all of the say over who was worthy of the Dragon Warrior position. It was him after all who invented the martial art and had been meditating for years to understand the secrets of the universe. If anyone knew who was worthy or not, it was him.

Oogway stopped just before the steps down the valley and looked back at his disappointing apprentice, "Shifu, this will be a difficult challenge to overcome for you as a Master, but doing so will provide you with the greatest sense of fulfillment and inner peace. All you must do, is to believe. Believe in yourself, believe in destiny, and believe in the Panda.

"But Master, it wasn't destiny that brought the Panda into the arena! It was an accident!" Shifu still protested before Oogway smiled and shook his head, "There are no accidents." The reptilian stated factually as he then descended the stairs to his destination.

Master Shifu still couldn't help but be disappointed, even though Oogway had always considered him his friend, the ancient Tortoise never seemed to reveal all of his secrets and tricks. Oogway always seemed to preach to him that accidents were no such thing and that everything happens for a reason.

"So this is goodbye then? Master?" He asked as he followed Oogway down the thousand steps.

"For now it is. I must pay the Panda one last visit before I ascend. My time has come after all, and this challenge you must face without me." The Tortoise stated and then turned to his apprentice while offering his staff made from the wood of the peach tree of heavenly wisdom.

"You must take my place in my permanent absence. Look after the valley, and look after the knowledge kept here, and lastly, look after yourself my friend." The Tortoise instructed as he placed the staff in his student's hands and then went on his way again.

Shifu watched as his long time teacher and mentor departed on his last journey before he would ascend. Seeing his closest 'friend' for the last time made him very emotional, more so than he had felt in a long time, 20 years ago for a fact.

* * *

Hours later, at a house on the outskirts of the Valley of Peace in a Bamboo forest, a certain youthful Lynx was enjoying himself rather much. His new lessons in martial arts had only just begun but he felt like they had lasted the whole day as he was so engrossed in the teachings. His teacher, the Panda whom he had recently met was feeling a great deal of pride at seeing someone who valued his knowledge. Lotus hadn't really considered passing his teachings from Master Oogway onto another, but this felt like the right thing to do with his time here, and this cub would certainly need his teachings in the future seeing as how he had a knack for getting into trouble.

As he demonstrated a couple of techniques to Taiki, Lotus heard Wēnhé call from behind, "Mister Lotus! There's someone here who would like to speak with you."

He turned to face her and asked skeptically, "Are you sure it's not just someone from the imperial army sent to arrest me?"

She shook her head and chuckled a bit, "I can't tell you who it is, but I assure you he isn't from the army. Now go, he's waiting for you in the front."

Lotus didn't feel at all comfortable with answering whoever this person was at the front of Wēnhé's house. For all he knew, they could be dangerous or mean harm to the others. Regardless, he trusted the female Lynx enough to go and speak with whomever it was. He addressed the kid, "Taiki, keep practicing the techniques I taught you, I'll be back in a moment."

Taiki nodded and continued to try to master the Tai Chi stance which Lotus had taught him a short while ago. He watched as his teacher hesitantly went to go talk to the stranger at the front door. "Mamma? Who is the person at the front door anyway?" He asked when the Panda was out of earshot.

She smiled, "Well Taiki, let's just say it is someone that Mister Lotus needed to speak to. Someone who I think will help Mister Lotus find what he really needs in this world."

As Lotus walked towards the front of the house from the backyard, he saw no one at the front door. 'This must be some kind of trick.' He thought as he looked around in every direction for whoever it was the female Lynx had told him about.

He then heard a voice call to him, "Greetings Lotus Shan."

Lotus knew from the voice that it was Master Oogway, but even so, he could not determine where that crazy old Tortoise was. After a moment of looking around, he heard the elder master call to him again, "Behind you."

Lotus turned and was greeted to the sight of his former master Oogway. Who had somehow managed to get behind Lotus despite not being heard or seen. Then again, this was Master Oogway who was in question, this Tortoise supposedly kept more secrets than anyone Lotus had ever known.

He bowed in respect, to which Oogway replied, "Rise my friend, I have something to discuss with you."

When he rose again, Oogway continued, "I understand your desire not to accept your duty as Dragon Warrior, Lotus Shan. It only seems natural for you to be scared of repeating and reliving the past again."

Lotus sighed, "I'm not scared master, I'm just… Okay, yes I'm afraid of failing the people I'm supposed to protect again. I can't do this Master. I just can't."

"Young Lotus, you have spent too long allowing doubt and fear to cloud your mind. You must forgive yourself, otherwise you will be stuck in the past for the rest of your life. There's a saying; 'Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift. And that is why it is called the present'." Oogway replied with a smile.

'For once Oogway didn't tell a riddle.' Lotus thought as he nodded to his master.

"Now I'm sure you know that I did not come here simply to talk, Dragon Warrior." Oogway continued as he reached into a small bag he had behind him. Pulling out a red cylindrical object with green caps on each side. It seemed like some sort of a container of some important artifact or such that Lotus couldn't guess.

"Inside this container, Lotus Shan, is the Dragon Scroll. As I understand it, you are unwilling to take up the mantle of Dragon Warrior, but nonetheless, you were destined to become the protector of China. Therefore this belongs to you." He said as he offered the container to Lotus who took it and inspected it more closely.

"So this scroll is supposed to hold some sort of knowledge that empowers the Dragon Warrior?" Lotus asked as he began to undo the green cap on the tip of the container.

"It contains everything that the Dragon Warrior needs to be successful. You must learn to interpret it before Tai Lung does." Oogway replied.

Lotus looked up to the Tortoise in shock not even bothering to open the container, "Tai Lung!? I thought he was in prison?"

Oogway nodded, "He was, but word returned that he has escaped and that he is on his way here to claim that scroll as his own."

"So you're giving me this scroll knowing full well that the most dangerous criminal will be coming for it very soon?" Lotus asked sarcastically.

Oogway smiled, "yes. You are the one who is destined to defeat him Dragon Warrior. It has always been your destiny to defend the Valley from Tai Lung. Not the furious five, not Shifu, not even me. Only you."

"But why? Why me? What's more special about me than say anyone else?" Lotus asked in confusion.

Oogway smiled, "The contents of the Dragon Scroll will reveal that to you. But for now, I must take my leave." He replied as he stepped back and turned around.

"Where will you go, Master?" Lotus asked as he followed the Tortoise.

Instead of answering, Oogway turned back to face his former pupil and placed his claws on the Panda's shoulder. He replied, "Lotus, or do you prefer Po? I am glad to have met you in my lifetime, may the gods smile upon you."

Just then, Lotus began to notice the weight of Oogway's hand disappear as the entire body of the Tortoise began to fade into a circle of rapidly intertwining peach petals. He watched as the peach petals drifted off in the wind in the same direction as the Jade Palace. Oogway's unbelievably long life had ended, he was now one with the universe.

A single tear escaped the Panda's eye. Seeing his mentor and friend pass on in front of him was hard to take, especially considering the amount of tragedy Lotus had in the past. This only seemed to remind him of the moment a year ago when he watched his best friend Hanzo die in front of him.

But knowing Oogway, it was not in vain. It seemed as though the Tortoise had lived his life's purpose and was content with leaving the world having completed his work. If anything this helped a little, but Lotus knew he had no time to mourn. He stepped away from the front entrance and towards the backyard where he had been earlier.

Taiki who had been practicing the teachings like Lotus had asked him earlier was very excited to see his teacher again. "So? Who was it Master Lotus?" The Lynx asked as Lotus whom he saw taking a seat on a bench with the strange looking container in his paw.

"Someone who I once knew, and who taught me many things." Lotus answered simply, not feeling the need to fully disclose the conversation.

"Hey! What is that thing you're holding?" Taiki asked as he ran up to inspect the shiny cylindrical object Lotus was holding.

"I guess you could say it is a gift." Lotus answered as he began to undo the green cap on the top again.

Taiki, upon closer inspection gasped and asked in surprise, "Is that the Dragon Scroll!? It totally is! It looks exactly like what my friends in the valley told me!"

Lotus sighed and gave in, deciding not to bother lying, "Yes, it is the Dragon Scroll." He answered as he popped off the cap and pulled out a small wrapped scroll.

Taiki could barely contain his excitement as he watched Lotus opening the container to one of the most legendary pieces of literature said to exist in all of China. He wanted to grab the scroll and open it himself, but restrained himself as it was not his to see.

Lotus unraveled the two ends of the scroll and opened it. This revealed a golden reflective surface that felt like paper, but different. However, to Lotus' surprise and to Taiki's and Wēnhé's as well, there were no words written on the surface. He flipped the scroll to see if he was accidentally holding the scroll the wrong way around, but again, there was nothing.

"what in the world?" Lotus asked himself in utter disbelief.

* * *

 **A/N: A nice slice of nostalgia from this chapter, I wanted to make a couple of ties to the first movie, and this seemed as good a time as any to do just that. If yall are wondering whether that Rhino warren will be alright or not, fear not, for Tai Lung was just bluffing about the nerve attack. It isn't permanent and will wear off in a while. But nonetheless his bluff worked. But will Lotus be able to comprehend the power of the Dragon Scroll? We shall leave that answer to the next chapter. If you're enjoying this story and want to keep seeing regular updates, follow and favorite the story. And also,**

 **Review!**

 **-Ace_Risk**


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Facing One's Fears

It took 3 days of constant traveling, but after all of his effort, Tai Lung had nearly arrived at the Valley of Peace. As he scurried through the bamboo forests, he shortly came to an opening where he could see in the distance Jade Mountain. And at it's peak was the place from where he had grown up. The Jade Palace itself.

He wasted no time, and kept up a fast pace, ignoring any at all fatigue he had over the long journey. His determination for retribution fueling him forward without fail. He would get that Dragon Scroll even if it was the last thing he ever did in his life. No matter who stood in his way, and no matter the cost.

As he approached, the signs of the Valley of Peace grew more numerous. From a now visible path through the bamboo forest, to the occasional sign indicating directions. He could almost smell the fragrance of the Peach tree of which he had meditated under many times before. And even after 20 years of being held in solitary confinement, he remembered these roads as if he traveled them on a daily basis.

* * *

"There must be a mistake! It's blank!" Shouted Taiki as he took the Dragon Scroll into his own hands trying to see if they were missing something.

Lotus was stunned. Sure he knew Oogway was full of surprises, but this time had really shocked him the most. He blankly stared at the ground as he thought of a possible explanation for this legendary scroll to be completely blank.

 _'This Scroll contains everything_ _the Dragon Warrior needs to be successful. You must learn to interpret it before Tai Lung does.'_

'I must learn to interpret it? But how? There's nothing written on it…' He thought as he now stroked his chin.

However, both him and Taiki's attention was taken when the two began to hear the sounds of loud paw steps as someone was quickly approaching. Taiki dropped the scroll to see who it was which Lotus noticed. He picked the scroll up and placed it in the capsule in which it had come from. He then put the capsule in a pocket and went to see what the ruckus was.

Upon stepping out into the front yard of the house, he saw rows of bamboo stalks either falling to the forest floor, or simply being bent over as something was plowing right through the underbrush.

It was approaching so quickly that Lotus looked Taiki in the eyes and told him, "Taiki, whatever this is, it isn't good. Go get your mother and I want each of you to stay in the house and wait until I tell you it is safe."

Taiki nodded and ran into the backyard to find Wēnhé. All the while, Lotus awaited whatever it was that was plowing through the forest as if it were a charging elephant. And he didn't have to wait long, for the culprit revealed themselves a short moment later as they crashed right through an opening in the forest which led to the path bordering the Lynx's house. From what Lotus could tell, it was a male Snow Leopard. Strong, mighty, and resembling someone who was well trained or very dedicated. They wore indigo colored leggings kept in place by a metal belt around their waist. The outfit reminded of him of some of the garments that Lotus had seen the Kung Fu Masters wearing at the tournament Oogway had held the other day.

While he was not hidden, the Leopard seemed to express no interest in Lotus, and before the Panda knew it, the Leopard was gone as quickly as he had arrived. Heading in the direction of the valley of peace, just south west of Wēnhé's house.

'Who the hell was that Leopard?' Lotus thought as he approached the front door of the house. He knocked and received no response.

"Taiki? Wēnhé? It's safe now." He called as he continued to knock.

When he heard no response he began to get worried. He feared that the Leopard may have been some type of diversion, so he broke down the door to check if the two Lynx inside were safe. But was surprised when he saw the two felines were huddled together on the floor of the house, both looking very fearful. However, neither looked to have been harmed or were in any danger.

Lotus knelt down to be at eye level with the two. "Taiki? Wēnhé? You're safe now. Whatever it was has passed by."

This got their attention and Taiki looked up to the Panda still with a fearful expression. Prompting Lotus to ask, "Is everything alright kid?"

The cub shook his head. "That was T-Tai Lung Master Lotus!" The Cub stuttered as he recoiled back into his mother's arms.

"You're sure? How could you have seen him? I thought you were both in here." Lotus asked as he placed his paw on Taiki's head in comfort.

The Cub nodded, "Yeah, just before I came inside, Mamma and I saw him rush out of those bushes! What are we going to do Master Lotus!"

Lotus shook his head, "I don't know. If what you say about him is true, then it seems the Valley of Peace is in great danger."

Taiki was quick to reply, "You have to stop him Master Lotus!"

However, Lotus was skeptical and unsure about this, "I don't know Taiki…"

At this, Taiki was disappointed, "But Master Lotus! We can't just let Tai Lung terrorize the valley again! I'm not sure even the Furious Five can defeat him!"

Lotus wanted so badly to say no, to run away from all this like he had said he would after the tournament. But he knew the kid was right. Even comparing the best of the Furious Five, Master Tigress, he knew that group would stand no chance. This was a warrior who had learned just about everything there was to know about the art of Kung Fu.

Lotus sighed, conflicted on whether to just stay with the two Lynx, to simply run away and never return, or to confront the Leopard.

He then thought of what his late Master Oogway had told him. 'You are the one who is destined to defeat him Dragon Warrior. It has always been your destiny to defend the Valley from Tai Lung. Not the furious five, not Shifu, not even me. Only you.'

He respected Oogway enough to believe this was true, but even so, the only way he could defeat Tai Lung was with the power of the Dragon Scroll. And seeing as how this scroll was completely blank, that was not an option.

"Master Lotus? If Tai Lung gets to the valley soon, many people are going to get hurt. You need to stop him before he can hurt anyone!" The Cub stated, drawing Lotus out of thought and back to reality.

"* _sigh*_ You're right Taiki. And I am done running away from the battle." Lotus said as he rose from his kneeling position and removed his robe. This once again revealed the white blood stained vest which he treasured so much.

He walked out the door with the two Lynx following closely behind and picked a small bamboo stem from a nearby stalk. He began to chew on it out of a force of habit and said, "Stay here. I'll be back."

"Uhh Master Lotus? I think you're trying to be a little too badass right now…" Taiki said, but was quickly scolded by Wēnhé, "Taiki! Language!"

Lotus chuckled and replied, "If I defeat Tai Lung I promise to return within the next day. If you don't hear from me by then… It will mean I've been defeated. And if that is the case I want yo two to leave this land and flee elsewhere. It wont be safe if Tai Lung is left free."

They both nodded and Taiki lastly replied, "Good luck, Master Lotus."

The Panda smiled and nodded back. And then, he took off in the direction of the valley of peace.

"Do you think he can beat him?" Wēnhé asked her son once the Lotus was out of earshot.

Taiki was hesitant for a moment, but decided to have some faith, "Yeah! And I don't just think he'll win, I know he will! He's the Dragon Warrior after all!"

* * *

After having traveled as quickly as he could for a good half an hour, Lotus arrived at the thread of hope. An area in the northern mountain pass in which the only way across were the two long rope bridges over an incredibly steep drop. He had walked these bridges multiple times before, but was much more weary now knowing that a powerful foe could just be waiting to ambush him. However there was a more pressing issue waiting for him once he had crossed the bridge. For upon reaching the other end, he noticed that the second bridge ahead was missing. The distance between the two formerly connected cliffs was well over 100 feet long, much too far for Lotus to simply jump across.

He walked up to the edge where his claws were hanging just above a seemingly endless drop into a treacherous, misty canyon bellow. A few small pebbles fell over the edge as his foot reached the cliff's edge, he watched them descend to the depths bellow before noticing something strange from the cliff side, a moving detached rope which blew in the wind of the canyon bellow.

Seeing as how the only way across was gone, he quickly came up with an idea, an incredibly stupid idea… But a plan nonetheless.

He took in a deep breath as he felt his heart beat rise, no doubt out of fear of falling. Even having trained in the way of martial arts for years, and having witnessed true horrors, he was still prone to the same fears as most others. Gathering all the courage he could, he leaped from the edge and used his front paws' claws to slow his decent. The friction burned at his paws, but it was certainly better than falling to his certain death. Reacting quickly, Lotus caught the stray rope and held on with both paws for dear life. If he were an undisciplined or weak individual this might have been his demise, but luckily Lotus was not such.

He began to swing back and forth until he had gained a decent amount of momentum. Enough to allow him to begin using his feet to run on the side of the steep cliff all whilst gripping the rope. As he reached the end of the rope's reach, he shifted directions and swung in the opposite way, increasing his momentum tenfold. Having now gained enough speed, he made one more swing to the other side of the massive rock and let go of the rope, his momentum making him soar up and over towards the opposite end of the collapsed bridge.

Descending rapidly towards the other edge, he had to react fast and catch the ledge of the next cliff. He did so, and managed to dig his claws into the rocky ledge enough to halt his descent. He dared not look down and instead poured all of his strength into lifting his body up and over the ledge.

Once he was safely over, Lotus breathed a sigh of relief. But before he could even get comfortable he heard the sound of a surprised gasp from in front. He reacted quickly and brought his fists up to prepare for a possible attack, however it became apparent to him that this was not necessary. For this was no attacker, rather it was a startled Master Crane whom Lotus had recently met. The bird seemed to be in rough shape, his feathers were ruffled, his hat was missing, and he looked like a nervous wreck.

But worse yet, when Lotus looked behind the bird he saw the corpses of 4 others, the same Kung Fu Masters who had accompanied Master Crane in the Noodle shop and whom Lotus had seen at the tournament. The most troubling sign was their lack of any movement whatsoever.

"You! You're that Panda from the valley!" Master Crane exclaimed, his wings still held up in self defense.

Lotus nodded and replied, "What happened here, are your friends-"

"No, they aren't dead. It was Tai Lung, we tried to stop him but we weren't strong enough. His nerve attack has paralyzed the others. I was only sparred because he wants to strike fear into Master Shifu." The Avian ranted, sounding obviously shaken up by what happened.

'I guess that explains why the bridge is out…' Lotus thought before asking the long necked bird, "Do you know where he has gone?"

"Why do you need to know?" Crane skeptically asked in return, still not letting down his defense, and clearly not trusting the Panda to a degree.

"So that I can find him and defeat him." Lotus answered bluntly.

Crane seemed unconvinced by this as he did not fully trust the Panda whom had beaten his colleague the other day.

"But before that, I need to undo the effects of his attack." Lotus continued as he walked up closer and knelt down before the 4 fallen warriors.

He started with Master Mantis who quite literally looked the most deceased out of all of them. Lotus pressed on three specific pressure points on the insect's small body in quick succession. In an instant, the Arthropod sprung back to life and began breathing normally while also seeming about as confused as ever.

Lotus then went to aid Master Monkey who was trapped in an outstretched pose which looked as if he had made a last attempt to hit his enemy before being paralyzed. Like before, Lotus tapped on three separate spots on the simian's torso. But what Lotus was not expecting was the arm of the Master that shot directly into his face the moment he undid the nerve hold.

"Ow! What was that for!?" Lotus ranted as he clutched the spot on his face where Monkey had hit him.

"He's too fast!" Monkey ranted as though he were still in combat with the Leopard who had paralyzed him.

Lotus shrugged off the punch from the simian and proceeded to un-paralyze Master Tigress. Like the others, he lightly pressed on 3 separate acupuncture points on her neck which in turn released the hold of the attack and allowed the feline to properly breathe.

"I thought we could stop him." Master Tigress stated in vain as she too rose from the ground.

Lotus lastly had to undo the effects of the attack on Master Viper. This would be a bit more difficult as Snake's awkward anatomy caused for some odd acupuncture points. He twisted and turned her several different directions making multiple cringe worthy cracks, but miraculously it worked and freed Master Viper of her paralysis.

Master Crane simply watched as the Panda had managed to bring all of his teammates out of their conditions. Any hostility he had held before was surely gone as he walked over to Lotus and quietly asked, "How did you do that?"

Lotus gave a small smile and whispered, "Long story short, Master Oogway taught me."

The bird was about to ask the many more questions he now had on his mind before Lotus interrupted with an order to all the Furious Five, "I know that you all have many questions right now, I would be surprised if you didn't. But for the time being, we need to work together to defeat Tai Lung."

Each of the Five looked at one another. They each nodded to the Panda and set off towards the valley, well, all but one.

"Why have you returned?" Asked Master Tigress with her arms folded.

Lotus really couldn't answer why, not because there weren't reasons, but because he didn't know for which reason had compelled him to return.

"I don't know. I guess you could say that the Tortoise can be quite persuasive." He replied simply.

She wasn't convinced with this, but frankly there was little time to waste at this point. "So you truly want to stop Tai Lung?" She asked as she began to walk in the direction of the Valley with Lotus following at her side.

"Yes. Besides the fact that it is the right thing to do, I will honor my Master's dying wish." Lotus replied as his walk became a fast jog.

Master Tigress kept up the pace easily despite only just being unparalyzed, no doubt because of her natural toughness and training. She had many questions to ask, but knew that now was hardly a good time to prod for answers.

"Once we arrive at the valley, I want you and the rest of the five to get all the civilians out of the village and to safety, make sure everyone is accounted for. I will face Tai Lung alone." Lotus ordered with a determined expression.

But without any warning, Master Tigress got in front of the Panda and halted, stopping Lotus in his tracks. "What makes you believe you'll be any match for him? There were five of us against one of him, yet we still lost. Who is to say you will not also meet the same fate?"

"You're right. I may not be a match for him. But I have to try. The least I can do is delay him while you and the others get the villagers to safety." Lotus answered as he walked around the feline.

Although she doubted the Panda could defeat Tai Lung, Tigress agreed with his mentality. The villagers were far more important at this time, and she already knew how proficient the Panda was as a fighter, he could definitely distract Tai Lung long enough to get all of the villagers to safety. So she took off after the Panda on all fours to catch up.

* * *

After a long journey back to the Valley, the entrance to the village was now in sight. Lotus feared the worst as he reached the outer walls of the village. He along with the Furious Five entered the village to find that it was surprisingly intact. There was no doubt in any of their minds that Tai Lung had arrived first, but it was odd to see the village completely unscathed.

"Stay sharp, he could still be around." Said Master Tigress to the others as she raised her guard in anticipation of an ambush.

"No. I know where he is. And it isn't here." Lotus answered without being asked as he walked ahead towards the center of the village.

"How can you be sure?" Master Tigress asked without dropping her guard.

"Because he is likely at the Jade Palace. Remember why he has returned in the first place, it's because he craves the Dragon Scroll's power." Lotus answered while still walking toward the center of the village in the direction of Jade Mountain.

"He will never succeed though! Master Oogway will stop him again!" Master Monkey stated as he followed the others.

"Oogway cannot." Lotus answered to the others as he pulled out a concealed object from behind him. It was the encasing for the Dragon Scroll itself.

Seeing the flabbergasted expressions of the 5, he explained, "He gave this to me before he passed on and told me that I had to discover it's true power."

The five were all silent for a moment, clearly coming to terms knowing that one of their long time mentors and teachers was gone from the world. "He's really gone?" Master Viper asked, trying to hide an obvious amount of emotion in her voice.

Lotus nodded and then opened and looked at the Dragon Scroll's gold page. 'Oogway, I hope you're right about this…' He thought as he looked at his own reflection through the page.

"So, what will we do then? Not even Master Shifu could stop Tai Lung before, who will stop him now?" Asked Master Crane who also sounded depressed after hearing of Oogway's passing.

Lotus didn't answer this, and instead he proceeded to walk towards the town center. Even though the mid-autumn festival had just taken course, no one was around, not merchants, not residents, not even children were in the streets. It resembled a ghost town as small clouds of dust blew in the light breeze.

"I wonder where everyone has gone to..." Asked Master Viper as her and the rest of the five trailed Lotus from behind. By this she was referring to the villagers who seemed to have vanished as of late.

Lotus then approached a very familiar place, one he had frequented much over the last year. He walked through the rounded entrance, being careful to duck his head as to not hit his face on the ceiling of the door which was clearly not built for easy access for Pandas. Inside were many neatly spaced round tables with multiple chairs at each which were not tucked in. On the walls were posters of ads for discounted meal options (with purchases of course). Though it was surprising to see this place so empty and barren.

"Strange. There's almost always people here." Lotus stated as he examined the desolate restaurant dinning tables.

He then picked up on something that had slipped past him just a moment ago, an aroma that was to say the least, pleasant. Onions, bok choy, radish, carrots, freshly cut mushrooms, ginger, green beans, garlic, and lastly, noodles?

He wasted no time in walking right up to the small door leading to the kitchen of the restaurant. He knocked on the door and waited for a response from the kitchen.

"Ping! It's me! Open up!" Lotus hollered from the other side of the door as he knocked on it repeatedly.

After hearing no response from inside Lotus impulsively barged through the door, breaking right through it's lock. He then entered the open doorway quickly but was immediately met in the face with a large round metal object that hit him very hard. The object made a 'clang' sound as it struck Lotus directly in the front of his face, the impact was so strong it made him fall to the ground with a 'thump' and place a paw where he had been hit.

"Oh! Po! I'm so sorry! I did not know it was you!" A high pitched voiced stated as Lotus began to groan in pain.

"Well who did you think it was Ping?" Lotus asked as he stood up, clearly not remembering that the ceiling was quite low, and hitting his head on the wooden roof by accident.

If getting hit in the face with a frying wok wasn't bad enough, hitting his head on the tough ceiling made it worse, and though he played it off as if he were fine, his head was throbbing after the impact.

"Well, Tai Lung of course! That darned snow Leopard just waltzed in here not long ago and stirred up the whole town! And no one's come for noodles ever since." The old Goose replied somberly as he jumped down from the basket he had been standing on earlier.

"Do you know where he went? Tai Lung, I mean." Lotus questioned as he sat on a small chair inside the kitchen.

"Well, from all the rumors I'd say he headed back up to that Jade Palace place..." The Goose answered as he walked back over to the pot of soup he had been busy cooking to perfection.

"But more importantly, where did you go!?" Ping snapped as he turned his head back to Lotus, holding up a soup ladle as if he were threatening the Panda.

Lotus was about to answer in his own defense before Ping cut him off, "You made me get someone else to carry all those heavy pots and pans down from that mountain for me! I'm not as young as I look you know!"

"Look, you won't be able to understand why I left. I'm sorry Ping, but I have no time to loose right now. I have to stop Tai Lung now." The Panda replied as he went on his way out of the shop.

Mr Ping frowned and sighed, "Worse yet, you left right when I was going to tell you the secret ingredient to my noodle soup!"

"What?" Lotus asked as he came to an abrupt halt and looked back at his former boss with a raised brow.

"The secret Po! I know you've always wondered what the secret is to my noodle soup! And I think that now is the perfect time that I reveal the secret to you." Ping stated, pointing his soup ladle at the confused Panda bear.

Lotus looked as though there were a million more important things he could do which wasn't far from the truth. But Ping had a point, this question had puzzled Lotus' mind for the last year, and what was one more minute just to find out?

"Okay then. What is it? Some kind of sauce?" Lotus asked impatiently.

Ping's beak turned from a neutral expression to that of a grin, "The secret ingredient is… Nothing!"

Lotus' mouth stayed open for nearly half a second trying to comprehend what he had just heard. "What?" He asked briefly.

"You heard me Po! It's nothing! To make something special, you just have to believe it's special!" Ping answered simply, but wisely.

Lotus stared blankly at the Goose for a moment, and then, something in his brain simply clicked. He took out the Dragon Scroll and looked directly into the golden page, it was him. There really was no secret ingredient, it was just him.

* * *

 **A/N: My gosh has it ever been a long time since I last updated! Sorry everyone for the long delay in my written works lately, it is mostly the fact that my college semester is in full swing with making the varsity team and keeping up with my 6 courses. However I have also been plagued with lack of motivation for some time. I intend to complete my two ongoing stories as soon as I can, and to do that, I need your support! Please favorite and follow if you have so far enjoyed this story! And most importantly,  
**

 **Review!**

 **-Ace_Risk**


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Impasse

He knew now what Oogway had meant earlier. And with a determined expression, he rolled up the scroll and patted the very confused Mister Ping on the back as he went on his way out of the shop. The Goose followed him up to the entrance and asked, "Po? Where are you going now?"

"Up to the Jade Palace to fight Tai Lung." Lotus answered without stopping.

"It would be best for you to get yourself out of here Ping. Before things get messy." He added, looking back and acknowledging his former boss.

"You don't really intend to go up that mountain and face him do you? That is suicide Po!" Ping stated while still waddling behind to keep up.

Lotus rolled his eyes, _'Yeah… Thanks for the faith Ping…'_

"It's better than allowing that tyrant to keep terrorizing everyone. The least I can do is distract him while you and the rest of the Villagers outside the Valley and to safety." He replied while exiting the shop.

He looked onward to the mountain where lied his most difficult challenge yet, as did his fate. And in this brief moment he thought about the past year he had spent in this Valley. Working in Ping's shop, wandering around the borders of the village, traveling up Jade Mountain. He had hardly even realized how this place had practically become his new home.

It all made sense now, much more sense then it should have. Throughout his training with Master Oogway in his youth he had heard the Tortoise preach to all that 'There are no accidents'. He had arrived in this Valley for a reason, not by accident. He had met Ping for a reason, not by accident. He had even been roped into the tournament for a reason, not by accident. On the peak of the massive rock lay his fate, his life, who he was, and who he would continue to be.

"Po, I know better than to try to stop you, but I'd just like you to know something before you leave." Ping stated in a calm and understanding tone.

Po didn't reply, prompting Ping to continue, "If you do make it out of this, you're coming back to work for me! You understand!? I can't work this shop alone anymore! And Ping's noodles must carry on!" The Goose ranted, holding up a ladle almost as if it were a weapon.

Lotus nodded, "Of course. And I would like to let you know something as well." He answered, turning back and kneeling to be at proper eye level.

"I lied to you, my name is not Po. It's Lotus. Lotus Shan." He stated without a shred of dishonesty.

Ping shook his head, "You will always be Po to me." The Goose answered while patting the Panda on the shoulder.

Lotus smiled unlike he had in a long time. And with that he nodded in understanding to his boss and exited the shop, leaving the Goose who immediately got to packing his noodle cart in preparation to depart from the Village.

Once out of the shop, he was greeted by the Furious Five who had been waiting for him the entire time, "Did you find what you were looking for?" Asked Master Tigress.

He nodded, "The Villagers are here, they're just locked up in their homes. I need you all to spread the word and evacuate every one of them."

"What will you do?" Master Crane asked on behalf of his team.

"Go up there and stop this madness." He answered, turning his back and heading on to ascend the mountain.

* * *

"I told you already! I don't know where it is!" Pleaded a weakened voice as the owner gasped for air.

"Oh I believe you Shifu, but I know there is still something you're hiding from me. Tell me, who is this 'real' Dragon Warrior? What's his name? What does he look like?" Demanded the voice of the large Snow Leopard who held his defeated foe in one paw pinned to the stone shrine next to the Moon Pool.

"I would rather die than to tell you." Replied the defeated elder Red Panda who try as he may could not hope to escape the clutches of his far more powerful pupil.

"Hmph! Really…? You would die for someone you don't even know? No wonder you were so easy to beat, you've gotten soft in my absence." The Leopard replied with a sneer.

He then loosened his grip on the smaller mammal and turned to face the busted down doors of the Jade Palace which revealed a cloudy and inhospitable sky. Thunder could be heard, along with the occasional flash of sheet lightning. It certainly reflected the situation, as cliché as it was.

"Perhaps I should pay another visit to the Villagers, maybe then you would have something to say." He threatened with a nasty looking grimace.

Shifu didn't answer, but still struggled to escape the Leopard's clutch. He could not let Tai Lung harm the villagers, this was just between themselves. But no matter what he did, he could not overpower his former student.

"That's what I thought." Tai Lung stated knowing that this would certainly motivate his former Master to reveal the whereabouts of the phony Dragon Warrior.

He stood up while still holding the Red Panda in his right paw and advanced towards the shattered door. But before he reached the exit, he heard Shifu say, "Stop. Please, I will tell you."

The Leopard looked his foe in the eye, "What does he look like? What is his name?" He asked for a final time.

"They called him Po. He is a-"

"A Panda."

Another voice chimed in finishing Shifu's sentence and making the two look over to the opening in the shattered doors where stood a Giant Panda Bear. Tai Lung examined him head to toe, "Who are you?" He asked, wanting only one answer.

"I am the Dragon Warrior." Lotus stated very simply.

"You!?" Tai Lung remarked, clearly baffled at this revelation.

He threw his defeated Master to the floor, "Hmph! Him!? You're that same Panda I saw earlier!" He stated, now pointing a finger and claw at the familiar face before him.

Lotus only nodded and prepared himself, readying his arms and maintaining a firm stance.

"You seriously mean to oppose me? I thought a Panda's best form of defense was to sit on people, no?" Tai Lung said with a mocking expression.

Lotus scowled, feeling unamused with the Leopard's taunts. But he stood his ground without showing fear or intimidation, much to the Leopard's displeasure.

"If you were truly the Dragon Warrior as you say then you would possess that which I want." Tai Lung stated, walking closer and clenching a fist.

' _Oh you mean this scroll that I have in my back pocket? I don't think you'll be getting this without getting your paws dirty.'_ Lotus thought as he stared down the feline who now stood only 20 feet from him.

"If by that you're referring to the Dragon Scroll, then I must disappoint you. For it is safely out of your reach." He answered while now sporting a mocking smile.

The Leopard growled, "You lie!" He answered with anger. Not realizing his paws were now shaking with irritation.

"There's only one way to find that out." Lotus lastly answered while dropping his straw hat to the floor and signaling his opponent to attack.

"So it would seem." The Leopard stated.

* * *

"Is that all of them?" Asked Master Monkey to his teammates all of whom were meeting up at the center of the village.

"I think so, but we should accompany them out just to be safe, you never know what could happen outside the walls of the village." Master Crane stated, to which the others nodded in agreement.

"Do you really think he can beat him? The Panda I mean." Asked Master Viper while they each went to catch up with the caravan of villagers ahead.

Everyone remained silent for a moment. "I mean he beat Tigress… But Tai Lung? I don't think so. I give the big guy about 5 minutes." Answered Master Mantis who was perched on Master Monkey's shoulder so that he was at eye level with the others.

Silence once again ensued as the Five each drifted off into thought. All wondering whether the Panda really did stand a chance against their legendary foe, or whether he would he would parish trying to protect the Valley. All but Master Tigress. She on the other hand was wondering something different.

' _Oogway was unmistakable that he was the one. Could it really be true? Is this Panda really the Dragon Warrior?'_ She thought as she looked up to the top of Jade Mountain. _'I hope you were right Master Oogway.'_

* * *

A menacing feline roar reverberated through the expansive Hall of Warriors as Tai Lung lashed out at Lotus with terrifying ferocity. The Panda narrowly avoided multiple powerful palm strikes before managing to roll out of the way toward a green pillar on the outside of the structure. The Leopard relentlessly pursued him and surged at Lotus preparing to hit him directly to the head to which the Panda ducked just in time, making Tai Lung hit the pillar instead.

The Pillar cracked from the impact, but this did little to stop the undeterred Snow Leopard who continued his barrage of assaults on his opponent who somehow seemed to be avoiding each of his strikes. Tai Lung had not expected this, and for a brief moment he halted his offensive, _'He has some martial arts experience. But no matter, I must end this fight now and resume my search for the scroll.'_

Lotus maintained his concentration, waiting for the inevitability of his opponent to continue his offensive. His strategy was working for the moment, but he knew that the Leopard had not yet shown anywhere near his true potential. He would have to be careful not to be struck by a direct hit, for if the damage Tai Lung had already caused was any indication, it may be Lotus' undoing.

He didn't have to wait long, with the Leopard charging towards him with murderous intent. He narrowly dodged this, having to drop to the floor and kip up directly after to avoid a counter attack. Trying his best to keep the fight at the top of this mountain, he stepped back into the Palace where he made sure not to step on the multiple collapsed Kung Fu Artifacts that littered the floor.

However, with his focus slightly disoriented, Tai Lung seized the opportunity and landed a tough jab straight to Lotus' sternum, causing the Panda to fall back and clutch his chest. He took a moment to recover before but not before his opponent rushed him and cornered him up against a large pillar. Tai Lung threw punch after punch aiming specifically at the Panda's face and torso. The Bear held his fists up and managed to parry the attacks, not being able to even focus on launching a counter with the near constant pace at which the Leopard maintained.

Thinking quickly, he managed to duck and shift to the right, the Leopard's strikes just grazing his sides and instead colliding with the pillar once more. Lotus then swung underneath Tai Lung's counterattacks and retaliated with his own counterattack grabbing the Leopard's back and slamming the feline face first into the already damaged pillar.

Taking a step back, he prepared for the next round of the fight knowing that his success had likely only served to irritate the Leopard further. But instead of immediately striking back, Tai Lung wiped a small bloodstain off his chin and murmured, "Not bad. It seems you're more of a warrior than I thought. For a Panda anyway."

Lotus looked unimpressed but shrugged off this insult and remained calm, instead waiting for the inevitable continuation of the fight. Surely enough within a short moment, Tai Lung approached him again. This time being more patient and taking the time to more carefully examine his opponent. Oddly enough, he had not noticed earlier that the Panda's outfit had a very noticeable burgundy stain directly down the center of his white vest.

 _'Strange. But no matter, I must incapacitate him and continue my search for the scroll.'_ He thought as he began to circle the black and white Bear to which Lotus did the same.

After a few moments, Tai Lung decided he had seen enough, and proceeded to continue his offensive. Placing each strike carefully and precisely, managing to land some blows to the Panda who returned the favor almost as often.

Each fighter knew that they could not keep the fight from proceeding this way, with neither of them having a distinctive edge over the other. Tai Lung, however, still had many tricks up his sleeve, which of course would be true if he were to ever wear something over his torso.

The Leopard managed to gain momentum over the Panda with a series of timely maneuvers of which allowed him to overpower Lotus' defense and land a strong hit. This sent the Panda back a short distance which allowed Tai Lung enough time to pick up the only tool he could find in the area, an artifact called t _he Rope Dart of_ _Jìqiǎo_.

He had received 20 years of training not only for hand to hand combat, but also in the use of tools and weapons such as this artifact which required the greatest amount of finesse. He gripped the end of the red ribbon-like rope as he swung it around his foot and allowed it to untwist for more momentum as he directed it's still sharp blade at the Panda who had just recovered from the previous strike.

Lotus noticed the bladed weapon flying for him and allowed himself to drop to the floor while the blade soared over top. As the Leopard recoiled the dart back, Lotus reverse somersaulted to safety at the entrance of the structure. This allowed him a moment to plan his next move, and a much needed breather. Though he would still have to think quickly, as Tai Lung relentlessly pursued him while swinging the dart in a figure eight pattern at a great speed, creating a blur of red around him.

 _'That's it! If I can knot that thing to his paws he'll be vulnerable!'_ The Panda thought, and immediately sidestepped to avoid the weapon again as it went flying past his head.

As he retreated back, he neared the edge of the plateau of the Palace foundation, he briefly looked behind him to the sheer drop of the thousand steps. _'_ _Perfect.'_ he thought as he quickly turned his attention back to his opponent.

Tai Lung had the Panda right where he wanted him, cornered and at the peak of the thousand steps. He began to uncoil the weapon from his arm rapidly, and as it gained more momentum he directed it horizontally at the Panda, attempting to slice the flesh of his opponent.

Lotus anticipated the trajectory of the blade accordingly, and quickly took a step forward whilst raising his right arm and allowing the rope to wrap and twist around his own arm. He then used this leverage to pull the Leopard in for a crushing uppercut to the jaw. Following it up, he ducked underneath one of the Leopard's counter strikes and managed to messily tie the red ribbon-like rope around Tai Lung's right paw.

Tai Lung growled in anger, and proceeded to elbow strike Lotus in the chest with his opposite arm, sending the Panda opposite from the ledge. Lotus clutched his chest out of pain due to having been struck multiple times, but now was not the time for weakness. He rose from the floor and managed to parry a strong kick with his left paw. With this, he followed up with a leg sweep to which the Leopard jumped above which unbeknownst to him played right into the Panda's paws. With Tai Lung in the air for a brief moment, Lotus used great strength with his left arm and landed a crushing punch to the feline's gut which sent the Leopard over top of the steep ledge and down the thousand steps.

However, before Lotus could watch the Snow Leopard fall down the steps, he felt something move on his right wrist. He looked down only to notice that the rope dart was still tangled on his right arm. "Oh not good…" He said to himself before being catapulted into the air like a projectile and down the same slope along with his foe.

As the two tumbled down the steps roughly, they attempted to land punches on each other. It was a painful fall for both warriors, however, after nearly half a minute of descendin, they reached the bottom of the mountain each landing in different spots in the village. Their connection now severed as the strand of the dart had snapped after having being ripped during the fall.

Lotus felt sore everywhere, especially his head which he had hit multiple times on the way down. He shook himself out of the daze and discombobulation and looked around. He saw many doors of the houses opened which meant that the Furious Five had done as he'd asked and had evacuated the villagers. _'Good. Now I don't need to worry about making a mess.'_ He thought as he stood up and stretched a bit, trying to release the tension in his body.

'Now where did that Leopard land…' He thought as he began to trot through the village in search of his opponent whom he hadn't seen since they both landed in separate spots.

Knowing Tai Lung, he couldn't have been taken out that easily. Therefore Lotus stayed ready and vigilant for the inevitable ambush of the feline.

As he walked through the streets, he kept his guard up. Were someone to see him without context of the situation, they would think he were paranoid, but with the threat of being ambushed by a formidable Kung Fu Master he could not afford to loose focus for even a second.

All was calm about the village, not a single sign that a powerful foe was in its mists. That was until Lotus heard the sound of stone crackling from nearby. It sounded as though a series of pebbles had fallen a short distance. But only a moment later he heard a much louder sound from the same area, a rumbling sound that resembled an earthquake. And before he knew it, he looked to his right and saw the wall of a building collapsing over top of him. Without even thinking, he ran as fast as he could to escape the wall falling on him. Having narrowly avoided the structure collapsing on him, he sighed in relief.

But in doing so, he had overlooked the fact that this was a diversion. Surely enough, while he attempted to catch his breath he was struck in the back by a hard kick that sent him crashing into another standing structure and creating a small dent and crack as a result. He propped himself on the wall of the building, having little time to recover before a follow up attack came his way.

He narrowly escaped towards the center of the street, giving him time to prepare for the next phase of his opponent's assault. Tai Lung rushed at him with nearly blinding speed preparing to punch the Panda unconscious. Lotus did the same, each warrior now charging at one another with unbelievable ferocity. They then simultaneously launched their fists at each other with their knuckles colliding and creating a small shock wave which stirred up the dust and debris around them.

In fact, they punched each other's fists with so much power that they both flew back a short distance with each warrior clutching their sore paw and grunting in pain.

' _Ow… What in the gods are his paws made of!? I've never heard of a Panda who can punch so hard!'_ Tai Lung thought while shaking the soreness out of his paw.

Lotus did the same, only he was much less frustrated with the state of the fight. He stood up still clutching his paw in pain and listened as the Leopard addressed him, "It seems we are at an impasse Panda! I commend you for lasting this long. You truly are a great warrior, but only one of us is worthy of being the Dragon Warrior."

"I would say the same to you if you weren't hellbent on causing such destruction to get what you want." Lotus replied while stretching his sore limbs.

"Hmph! You don't know the half of it." Tai Lung scoffed in reply.

"Do you really think that Scroll will give you unlimited power? I've seen it myself, and it is nothing more than a ruse!" Lotus commented as he reached into his back pocket.

Tai Lung growled, "Impossible! My entire life has been dedicated to achieving the secrets of that piece of paper! I'm not about to let your lies sully my ambition!"

But before the Leopard made his next move, he watched as the Panda pulled a cylindrical object out from his back pocket. It was lined with metallic red and gold colors followed by designs of serpents and two green caps on each end.

"Is that really-"

"Yes, I was bluffing when I said I had hidden it. If you want this thing so badly, then have a look for yourself." Lotus stated, and proceeded to throw the scroll to his opponent who caught it with one paw.

Tai Lung raised a brow, "No tricks." He stated, to which the Panda nodded in response.

He then unscrewed the top green cap and removed the golden parchment. His formerly stern expression now began to shift to one of a hideous greed.

"Finally… The power of the Dragon Scroll is MINE!" He exclaimed while unrolling the parchment quickly.

Only, well, nothing. There quite literally were no written runes or literature of any kind. It was simply empty, serving only as a reflective surface from which he could see his own face which reeked of surprise and disbelief.

"It's… It's nothing!" He said out loud but mostly directed toward himself.

Lotus nodded, "See!? We've both been played for fools. There is no secret ingredient. It's just you."

Tai Lung looked up from the Scroll and over to the Bear, the look of surprise having now been overtaken by a strong wave of anger. "It's a fake! Do you really expect me to believe that the legendary Dragon Scroll is nothing but a scam!?"

"Believe what you want. I'm finished with hiding from the truth." Lotus replied aggressively while assembling into a defensive stance in preparation for the final round of the fight.

The Leopard threw the scroll to the ground in frustration. He too struck a Kung Fu stance while barring his sharp canine teeth in a scowl. He growled and starred his opponent down in hatred, the Panda had crossed him and stalled him for the last time.

In a fit of rage, he charged Lotus without holding anything back, using the full brunt of his training and his raw tenacity to overwhelm his opponent. Lotus struggled to repel the vastly superior power of Tai Lung's strikes, it seemed that the feline's emotion had given him newfound strength.

In a moment of panic, Lotus flipped back to avoid what he perceived as a strong uppercut. However, this had only been a distraction as the Leopard had launch a fake hit. This allowed Tai Lung a perfect opportunity to land a killer blow while his opponent was open. He unsheathed his claws for a brief moment and lashed out at the bear, swiping horizontally at the Panda's torso and making contact.

Lotus looked down and noticed the scratches on his chest, however, he didn't even feel the pain. All he felt was pure hatred and anger towards the Leopard who had just torn his vest to shreds.

"My mother made that vest." He stated, to which Tai Lung raised a brow.

Lotus took the rest of the vest that still remained on him and set it to the ground along side the other shards of the ripped garment. This revealed the pattern of black and white fur which his vest had previously hidden. That and also his unnaturally lean figure, well, for a Panda at least.

He then sighed and closed his eyes whilst striking a pose of submission with his arms to his sides and his head angled downward. From Tai Lung's point, it seemed as though the Panda was accepting defeat. So wasting no time, he charged at his opponent to finish the fight with one final decisive blow.

He launched his paw forward with the form of the three finger nerve pinch to obliterate the Panda's pressure points. However, the technique never made contact with his target. His paw had been caught in mid air by none other than Lotus himself. And before he could use his other, Lotus managed to kick both of the Leopard's feet out from underneath him, making him fall to his back. The feline kipped up but was then met by a strong punch directly to his nose, knocking him back and allowing the Panda to follow up with a hard knee to his opponent's jaw.

Tai Lung landed on the ground in considerable pain, refusing to give up, he rose from the ground and attempted to throw a punch of his own, but the force behind it was so weakened that the Panda easily caught his index finger in a technique that looked all too familiar to him.

"The Wuxi Fingerhold!?" He exclaimed through a weak and beaten voice.

"You know this hold?" Lotus asked with a grin now occupying his face.

"You're bluffing! Shifu didn't teach you that!" The Leopard stated boldly.

Lotus maintained his grin, "You're right."

He replied, to which the Leopard responded with a sly look.

But before Tai Lung could say anything in response, he continued, "Oogway did."

And in that split second, Lotus flexed his pinky finger. All of a sudden, a ringing sound followed by a pulsating beam of light shot out across the valley.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside the reach of the village, a large caravan of villagers marched onward in attempt to flee from the destructive conflict. They had put at least a half a kilometer between them and the village by now and were now coming up to the peak of a foothill. Gloomy expressions covered the faces of the villagers, it's not every day they had to evacuate from their homes to find refuge, in fact the last time things had been this severe had happened nearly a decade ago.

Trailing at the back of the caravan were the renowned Furious Five Kung Fu Masters, but at this time, none of the five felt very furious or renowned for that matter. Their abilities were all but useless against the superior opponent as their previous fight had shown.

As they trudged on, they each thought about the imminent battle that occurred in the village. They had seen the Panda fight before, but though they recognized his combat prowess, they couldn't fathom the idea of him defeating Tai Lung.

However, distracting them from their depression came a sound from the village. It must have been fairly loud for it to have been heard from this distance. And when the five turned their heads, they then understood why. A nearly blinding flash of light pulsated across the valley and passed right over top resembling a strong gush of wind. They had never seen this spectacle before, but they had certainly heard about it. Without even questioning it, they immediately departed for the village.

* * *

A dust cloud now occupied the entire village, leaving almost no visibility whatsoever. However, this didn't stop the Five from entering anyway. They slowly made their way through the debris and rubble toward the center of the village to the source of the commotion.

For many moments, all they could see were dust clouds and the rough outlines of structures. However, when the dust settled a figure could be seen at the center of the town. They looked to be kneeling down and staring at the ground. They approached carefully, knowing full well that this could be Tai Lung. However, upon closer inspection, it was evident that this was not the Leopard. He was slightly more rotund in figure, and as the last of the dust settled, they could see the black and white fur coloration on his torso. It was the Panda.

Lotus noticed the many eyes set upon him, and so he stood up and faced the astonished faces of the Furious Five along with the Villagers who had also returned. He looked at them all with a neutral expression, "It's done." He stated.

A moment of silence overcame the crowd as their jaws dropped in disbelief. What followed was the most ecstatic eruption of happiness from the villagers. They cheered and celebrated for the savior of their village. A small smile graced Lotus' face as he watched the overjoyed villagers, the feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment almost overwhelming him. A group of villagers even attempted to lift him up in celebration, however, they struggled to even lift his mass off the ground and soon gave up.

He then looked over to the Furious Five, each of which then bowed and saluted him with the Wushu greeting. Master Tigress spoke on behalf of the group, "Master."

Lotus, out of respect for the others, did the same while now donning a full smile. His accomplishment had ensured the safety and well being of everyone in this Valley, it was something he had wanted all along without even knowing. Something he wasn't able to do in his past home. But now seeing the faces of these villagers, seeing them cradle their loved ones made him happy, and at a loss for words.

Oogway had been right all along, as he was every time. Just the thought of his Master made him look up to the sky. _'Thank you, Master. For everything.'_ He thought as he stared at the golden colors in the morning sky.

* * *

Calm, that is what Lotus felt as he sat at a peak where behind him lay a familiar Peach Tree. It was now near dusk and the golden colors in the sky were fading to a darker blue. He looked down at the Valley where he could see the villagers were still hard at work clearing the debris that had scattered around the village with the earlier fight that had ensued. He regretted having caused such a mess, but it had been the only way to stop his opponent.

"What are you doing up here?" Asked a voice from a short distance behind him.

He turned around to see each of the Furious Five masters Mantis, Monkey, Crane, Viper, and Tigress.

He shrugged, "Just keeping an old friend company." He answered while turning his head back to the village.

The Five looked to each other, then back to the Panda. They felt obliged to accompany him in his solace, and so they did.

He sighed, "I'm sorry, all of you. For my blatant disrespect lately." He stated while still watching the village.

The Five all nodded. "And us as well." Replied Master Tigress on behalf of the group.

"How is Master Shifu doing?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Thanks to you, he's alive and well." Answered Master Viper with a tone of gratitude.

"That's good." Lotus stated while now holding up something he had kept at his side. The remains of his white vest.

"I have to go away." He said while looking at the torn shards of the vest.

"Why? You just defeated Tai Lung, this calls for celebration!" Stated Master Mantis and Monkey simultaneously.

Lotus nodded while looking at the dried bloodstains, "That would be nice. But this is personal. I need to pay tribute to an old friend."

* * *

 **A/N: Okay… So before anyone says this was released 2 months too late, let me explain…**

 **Yeah, I don't have a good excuse, I can only say that I had College, work, and other responsibilities. Anyway, all that matters is that it's done! I might include an epilogue if I get enough support for it. However, for all intents and purposes, this story is done. If you would like a sequel to this, let me know in a review. Thank you to all the people who favorited and followed this story along the journey, and especially to those who reviewed and gave me the inspiration needed to continue [You guys know who you are :) ]**

 **In the coming future, I have already written the first chapter for a KFP fic that I will title "Darkness in His Heart" And I am also in the midst of writing a fic for Legend of Zelda. Be sure to check those out when they are uploaded!**

 **Thanks for reading,**

 **-Ace_Risk**


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